Benjamin's Halloween
by Terminal10
Summary: While preparing for Halloween, Benjamin and co. go off to Monster Valley to stop an evil witch, with Bugsy learning a shocking secret about her past. Sequel to Benjamin's Christmas.
1. Prologue

A young mouse slept in his bed. He had grey fur, jet black hair, green eyes, and red pyjams. He opened his eyes.

He got out of bed and walked downstairs to get some breakfast. He got a glass of blood. Yes, blood. For he, along with everyone else in his family, were vampires. The blood-sucking monsters with fangs.

He took that glass of blood and took it away with him. He sat at a table and drank it up. "Tasty," He hissed. He then put on his black cape and was prepared to walk outside when he heard a sound, as if someone singing.

"Maio, maio, maio, maio, maio, mai," The voice sang. "Maio, maio, maio, mai." The boy recognised the voice immediately. "It's a witch call," He said. He then saw his little sister crawl out the window and follow the noise. At that moment his older brother also came out of his room. "Oh, no," He said. "Susan's following the witch call."

They began losing sight of Susan, who was running off into the forest. "She's a goner," The boy's brother said. "No she's not," The boy said. "You get help while I follow Susan. Go."

His brother ran off, and then he ran off into the forest, yelling, "Susan!" Susan didn't hear him. She had been hypnotised by the witch call, and that was the only thing she could hear.

The boy ran as fast as his legs could take him. Being a vampire, he ran faster than a cheetah, but his sister was faster. "Susan!" He called again.

Again his calls were unanswered. "Susan!" He then found himself only inches away from a lake. He couldn't pass through it, as water drained vampires of their power. So he transformed into a bat and flew over it.

As soon as he was on the other side he transformed back into a mouse and continued after his sister. After what seemed like an eternity, he found is sister, just being able to see her through all of the trees and bushes.

He tripped on a branch and rolled down a hill, ripping his cape and pricking his ears. He crashed to the ground, covered in mud, and looked up to see a small and crooked house. "That must be the witches house," He said. He then saw Susan running up towards the house. "Susan, don't," He gasped, but she couldn't hear him. "Come child," A voice said from inside the house. She opened up the door and walked inside. "Yes, that's it," The voice said. "Come to me."

The vampire boy got up and ran towards the house. Looking through the window, he caught sight of his sister, following a tall hooded figure with long, bony hands towards a chair. Susan then sat down in the chair.

The figure turned around. The boy ducked so he wouldn't be seen. The figure scratched her chin. Then she turned back to face Susan. She was sitting motionless in the chair, her hands in her lap. The figure turned to a table full of potions. She took a book and opened it. She started mumbling then closed the book and sniffed the air. She could smell the boy.

She hobbled over to the window and grabbed the vampire boy with her bony hand. "So you thought you could spy on me?" She hissed. She threw him to the ground. "I won't do away with you now, but you will not interfere with my plans."

She tied the boy up and then went off and read the book again. Then she hobbled off to Susan. "In this very hour," She said. "I will take your power." Immediately, blue light shot out of Susan and into the witch's hands. Then the witch transferred the power into a potion. Suddenly, mice surrounded the house. "You fools," The witch said. "Your too late."

The witch cackled and then, bright light shot out of her. Then she disappeared into thin air. "She got away again," A vampire said.

The witch appeared in her dark castle. "I've gotten the powers of a mermaid, a troll, a banshee, and now a vampire," She said. "I will soon be finished."

The witch sat down in her chair. "Of all these creatures, I have my eyes on a witch," She said. "And I know which witch to get her powers from. Pandora Woz."


	2. Creepy Drawings

I walked down the street with my friend, Bugsy Wugsy. "I can't wait for Halloween," She said. "It's in three weeks," I replied. "So you have to wait."

"I just remembered that," Bugsy said. Suddenly, a mouse jumped out at us wearing a hockey mask and wielding a chainsaw. "AAAAUUUGGGHH!" We both screamed. The mouse laughed. He removed the mask.

"Punk Rat, you jerk!" Bugsy yelled. She slugged him in the arm. That made him laugh even more. "You nearly gave us a heart attack!" I barked. He laughed so hard tears were rolling down his face. He fell on the ground, rolling around and kicking his feet in the air.

I sighed. Since his parents got back together, Punk Rat had stopped being the school bully. But he still liked to play pranks on mice.

"It's not even Halloween yet," I said. "Why are you wearing that costume?" Punk Rat stopped laughing and answered, "I was testing it. I wanted my costume to be scary so I decided to test it on you."

"Who are you supposed to be anyway?" I asked. "Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th, duh," Punk Rat replied. "He has one of the highest body-counts of death ever."

"Well, I'm going to be a witch," Bugsy said. "And I'm going to be a blood-sucking, nocturnal vampire," I said, raising my arms up in the air, trying to look as scary as possible. Punk Rat obviously was undaunted. "Sure, people will die of getting their blood sucked out," He said. "If they don't die of boredom first."

"Hey, you should respect them," I said. "Mice knew of the vampire long before they new of this Jason Voheyes."

"It's Voorhees," Punk Rat corrected. "Whatever," I sad. "Jason is a mouse like all of us, so how could he come back to life. So he's a zombie. And zombie's are not cool."

"They kind of are," Bugsy said. I stared at her. Then I turned back to Punk Rat. "They just walk around and-." He was gone."

"Punk Rat you come back here!" I yelled. The prankster was running off to school where other mice were as well. Bugsy and chased after him, but soon lost him in the crowd.

Before long the bell rang. Mice poured inside. I took off my bag and sat in my chair. I looked around at my fellow classmates. I saw Isaac, who was literally Santa's son, which everyone at school knows about. I saw former Frost-Biter Tasha. I then saw Steven, David, Liza, Carmen, and Punk Rat, who was sitting right besides me. Finally, I saw my cousins, Penniford and Saveanna Stingysnout.

Our teacher, Mss Angel Paws, stood at the teacher's desk. She counted the students to make sure no one was gone. Surprisingly, everyone was there. Most of the time, at least one student is at home.

"Class, because Halloween is 21 days away, I want you to draw who you will be on a white piece of paper. She handed the paper out to everyone in class. When everyone had a piece of paper on their desk, they drew who they wanted to be.

I glanced at Punk Rat's paper, which showed Jason Voorhees. The picture looked so realistic, almost as if he had taken a picture of him rather that draw him. The one thing that was unrealistic about him is that Punk Rat drew orange hair on his head. Obviously, it was meant to be Punk Rat's hair to remind him of himself.

I rolled my eyes. How could Punk Rat be so self-centered? What an ego-maniac. I was nothing like him. Then I stared at my paper. It was a drawing of yours truly with a black cape and fangs. Maybe I was a little self-centered.

Steven finished first and stood up to present hi drawing to the teacher. I glanced at the paper. It was a Chinese Dragon. Steven planned on being a fire-breathing beast. I love this guy.

Tasha finished as well. She tried to hide her drawing, but I got a glimpse of it. It was a gorgon, a female monster with snakes for hair and could turn you to stone if you look her in the eye. I shuddered. I feared Gorgons.

Isaac, of course, planned on being an elf. David planned on being a lawn gnome. I didn't really get that. They just stand around doing nothing. But then again they did look fun with their pointy hats and long beards.

Carmen was going to be sleeping beauty. And Penniford and Saveanna planned on being Jack and Jill. "Jack and Jill rolled down a hill," Punk Rat taunted. "Like a masked killer is better," Penniford replied.

When recess came, we hopped outside and talked about what we were going to be. "I'm going to be a vampire," I said. "Those give me the creeps." Tasha said. "Well Gorgons get on my nerve," I shot back.

"Maybe if I show you my drawing you'll turn to stone," She replied. "I plan on being a witch," Bugsy said. All eyes turned to her. "Are you nuts?" Tasha asked. "Witches are the worst mythical creatures."

"She's right," Liza said. "They kidnap little mice like us and force us to drink their disgusting potions."

"They are hideous," Punk Rat said. "Disgusting, miserable worms." The bell rang. "It's time to go back inside," I said. We all scampered into the school.

As soon as the last mouse was inside, a huge puff of smoke appeared out of nowhere. When the smoke disappeared, two mice our age appeared. The older one was a girl, and the younger was a boy.

The girl had long, blonde hair, grey fur, green eyes, and a black skirt. The boy looked just like her, but had black hair. The girl snapped her fingers, and a pair of sunglasses appeared in her hand.

She put one on, and then handed the other one to her brother. "Where is she?" The boy asked. "I don't know," The girl said. "But we have to find her. We have to find Pandora Woz."


	3. Purple Eyes

School had ended, so me and Bugsy were going to my house. Bugsy was sulking. "What's wrong?" I asked. "It's just you guys didn't have to be so rude when I mentioned I was going to be a witch this Halloween."

"Well, it was true," I said. "Witches kidnap children." Bugsy glared at me. I stared into her eyes. Her eyes were black, but when I looked closely they almost looked purple. I had looked up Witches on the computer, and it said witches had purple eyes. Why did Bugsy's eyes seem purple when I looked closely? How odd.

"Now you're beginning to sound like them," Bugsy said. "I know," I said. "But I just don't want to come snout-to-snout with a witch."

Malcolm rode up to us in a motorcycle. "Want a ride?" He asked. "Sure," Bugsy said. We both hopped into the motorcycle.

"So, what do you plan on being for Halloween?" I asked Malcolm. "A warlock," Malcolm answered. "You mean the male counterpart of a witch?" Bugsy asked. "Yeah," Malcolm said.

"Looks like Bugsy's not the only one interested in witchcraft," A voice taunted. We turned around. Punk Rat was loitering in a non-loitering area. "Get lost," Malcolm said.

"I just wanted to tell you that I am awesome," Punk Rat said. "No you're not," Bugsy said. "I knew you would say that, so to prove my awesomeness, I came up with a prank that will get you all squeaking."

"And what would that be?" I asked. I soon got my answer. Dozens of water balloons came raining down on us, drenching us with water.

"Punk Rat, you jerk," Bugsy said. Punk Rat rolled on the ground, laughing uncontrollably. "Come on, let's go," Malcolm said. We rode away, splashing some mud in Punk Rat's face.

After what seemed like an eternity, we reached my house. I heard three voices inside: My mom Jessica, my uncle Geronimo, and Bugsy's niece, Petunia Pretty Paws.

We pressed our ears to the door to eavesdrop on what they were saying. "I knew he was a jerk, but he never deserved that," Geronimo asked. "That was just cruel," Petunia said.

"I can't believe it," Jessica said. "It was cruel." Petunia started sniffing the air. "Benjamin, Bugsy, Malcolm, you can come in now."

We slowly opened the door and walked inside. "How did you know we were there?" I asked. "I smelled you," Petunia said. "And I have to say, you have quite a stench."

"But I bath twice a day," I said. "How can I be dirty?" Petunia just shrugged. "Well, what were you saying?" I asked.

"We were walking down the road when we saw Bratfur," Petunia said. He was wearing a pumpkin with a face carved in it."

"Bratfur's a bigger prankster than Punk Rat," I said. "I guess he wanted to scare someone with the pumpkin head. What's the big deal?"

"He had four bruises, five cuts, and a black eye," Petunia said. Our eyes widened. "Who would do that?" I asked. "He said he was tackled by two mouselets, a boy and a girl, and they were wearing sunglasses and black suits," Geronimo said.

"But what got our attention was that he said there was a puff of smoke, and they were gone," Jessica said. Our eyes widened even more.

"You mean like wizards?" We asked. "Yeah," Geronimo said. "He's in the hospital."

"Can I visit him?" I asked."Sure," Petunia said. "Right after you go and bath."

"Sure I-I-I-I-I," I stammered. I was staring into Petunia's eyes. Rather than blue, her eyes were purple, like a witch's. My eyes rolled back into my head. I turned pale. Then I fainted.

**Well, that's the end of chapter three. And I have two questions:**

**Why is Bugsy and Petunia's eyes purple?**

**Who attacked Bratfur?**

**Remember, R&R, or else the witches will come for you.**


	4. Disappearing Act

I woke up. Everyone was crowding around me. "Benjamin, what happened?" Geronimo asked. I stared into Petunia's purple eyes again, and said, "Nothing."

"I'll say," Bugsy said. "You were out for ten minutes." "Maybe I can't handle my own smell," I replied. "I think I should go take my bath now."

I ran upstairs, took my newest clothes out, and scampered into the bathroom. Petunia ran up into my room. Then she took out her cell phone, dialled her Grandmas number, and then put the phone to her ear.

Soon, she heard a voice in the phone. "Who is it?" Grandmother Paws asked. "It's me, Petunia," Petunia answered. "What can I do for you, my dearest granddaughter?" Grandmother Paws asked.

"Benjamin looked directly into my eyes," Petunia said. "I think he's on to us." There was a long pause, then Grandmother Paws said, "This is bad. He shouldn't know who we truly are."

"What should we do?" Petunia asked. "I think you should avoid Benjamin," Grandmother Paws said, "If he learns more about the Paws family, our secret could be exposed."

"What about Bugsy?" Petunia asked. "I don't want her to know who she is either." "I don't think it will be long before she finds out about our secret."

"Well, I still think we shouldn't let her know about this," Petunia said. "I agree," Grandmother Paws said. "I'm just saying you can't keep the truth from Bugsy forever."

"Petunia, who are you talking to?" Geronimo asked. "I should go," Petunia said. "Goodbye." She hung up. By now I had finished bathing. "Well, now can I go?" I asked.

"Yes," Jessica said. Me, Bugsy and Malcolm hopped into Malcolm's motorcycle and drove off. It wasn't long before we ran into Punk Rat again.

"Where are you going?" He asked. "To the hospital," Malcolm answered. "But none of you are injured," Punk Rat replied.

"Bratfur is," Malcolm said. "You mean the little punk who keeps playing pranks on us?" Punk Rat asked. "Yes," Bugsy said. "Apparently, he got beaten up after he tried to scare two little mice."

"So he got a small bruise," Punk Rat snorted. "What's the big deal?" "He had four bruises, five cuts and a black eye," I said. "Oh," Punk Rat said. "That's the big deal."

"He also said they vanished into thin air," Bugsy said. "That's impossible," Punk Rat said. "They probably damaged his brain so he can't think properly."

"How about we go and find out?" Malcolm said. "OK," Punk Rat said. He hopped onto the back of the motorcycle and we drove away.

Soon enough we reached the hospital. We jumped off the motorcycle and scampered into the hospital. Sure enough, we found Bratfur. He was lying on the hospital bed, his arm and leg in a cast, and he had a big bruise on his left eye. The pumpkin head was on a table, and there was a huge hole in it.

"Bratfur?" I asked. "Yes?" Bratfur moaned. "Wow, who could have done this to you?" I asked. "I just wanted to play a prank on some mice and they freaked out," Bratfur said.

"How about you tell us from the beginning?" I asked. "OK," Bratfur said.

"I saw two mice wearing sunglasses and a black jacket walking down the street. One was a boy, the other was a girl. I decided I would play a prank on them. I got my pumpkin mask and put it on my face and then I hopped into the tall grass. Just as they were about to pass, I jumped out at them. They squeaked. I laughed. 'How dare you!' The girl said. Then she grabbed me by the neck and punched me in the face. The boy grabbed me and held me down while the girl started pounding me. She threw one punch that shattered my pumpkin head and gave me the black eye. Then the boy threw me to the ground and the girl twisted my ankle while the boy kicked sand in my face. Then they kicked me until I was cowering on the floor, nearly unconscious. Then the girl snapped her fingers and they disappeared. Just like that."

There was a long pause. Punk Rat broke the silence. "Bratfur got beaten up by a girl!" He laughed. "Bratfur, I could believe most of the story, but the ending part sounds impossible," I said. "Maybe you blacked out and when you woke up they were gone."

"No I didn't," Bratfur yelled. "They disappeared, just like that." "Your delirious," Bugsy said. "No I'm not," Bratfur said. "Let's go," Malcolm said. We started to leave.

"I'm telling you, they disappeared," Bratfur said, but we had already left. Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke and the boy and girl were standing in front of him. "Oh my gosh," Bratfur said.

"Would you happen to know somebody?" The girl asked. "Somebody named Pandora Woz?"


	5. Kidnapped

"What are you talking about?" I asked the hospital nurse three hours later. She had said that Bratfur had disappeared from the hospital after we left.

"I'm telling you, he disappeared with two mouselets," The nurse said. "I just came through the door when I saw the three of them. There was a puff of smoke and they were gone."

"Oh my gosh," Bugsy said. "Do you think Bratfur might have been right when he said the two other mice disappeared into thin air after they beat him up?"

All of a sudden, Bratfur's mom came through the door. "I came to visit my son," She said. "Uh oh," I said. Punk Rat turned to face the mouse. "I have some good news, and some bad news," He said.

"Oh no," I said. Punk Rat always makes someone faint when he tells them the bad news, and then make their jaw hit the ground when he tells them the good news.

"The bad news is that Bratfur has been kidnapped," Punk Rat said. "The good news is that Bratfur has been kidnapped." Bratfur's mom stood still as a stone. Then she started laughing hysterically.

After ten seconds however, she yelled, "BRATFUR!" and fainted. "How can both the good news and bad news be Bratfur being kidnapped?" I asked Punk Rat.

"It's bad news for her," Punk Rat said. "But good news for me since now no one can rival me as the top prankster in New Mouse City."

My jaw hit the ground. See what I mean? Punk Rat always makes things confusing when he tells someone the good news bad news thing.

Punk Rat walked outside. "Where you going?" Bugsy asked. "To get some fresh air," Punk Rat said. He had barely gone a few feet when he ran into a girl. She was wearing black sunglasses and a black skirt.

"Are you new in town?" Punk Rat asked. "Because soon you'll want to leave." The girl took off her glasses and gave him a death stare. "And do you want to know why?" Punk Rat asked, trying to show no fear when staring into her eyes. "Because soon you'll be victim to a whole lot of pranks."

"Oh really?" The girl asked. "I'd like to see you try." With that, she slapped Punk Rat right in the face. It literally left a red hot burning paw mark on his cheek.

Punk Rat crashed to the ground, unconscious. The girl put on her sunglasses and walked away. By then we had gotten outside and we saw Punk Rat's body sprawled on the ground. "Just ignore it," I said. We ran off in the opposite direction.

Bugsy soon got to her house. "Bye, Bugsy," I said. "Bye," She replied. We walked away. Bugsy turned around and saw a mouselet in black clothing standing still as stone, staring at her. It sent a chill up Bugsy's spine. She quickly shut the door.

I soon reached my own house and walked inside. Penniford and Saveanna were sitting in the couch, watching TV.

"Hi," I said. "Benny," Saveanna said. "Could you find a freakin' show for us to watch?" "Yeah," Penniford said. "All that's on is Barbie and My Little Pony."

"How about you go on channel 112?" I asked. "It said a movie called Halloween is on." "OK," Penniford said. He flipped onto the channel. What we saw next nearly made us faint.

We saw the scene in Halloween where the killer murders a guy named Bob by impaling him, then strangle a girl named Linda with a telephone cord. In a matter of minutes we were all pale. Penniford lifted up the remote with his shaky hand and turned off the TV.

"I never want to watch a horror movie again," I said. "Me neither," Saveanna said. Then we heard the sound of lightning and we all dashed upstairs.

I jumped into Jessica's room. Geronimo was reading a book there. "Mouldy mozzarella!" He cried when he saw me. "Benjamin, what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I said. I quickly decided to change the subject. "So, Uncle G, can you tell me something?"

"Of course," Geronimo said. "What do you want me to tell you?" "How did you meet Petunia?" I asked. Geronimo dropped his book in surprise. "Why would you want to know that?" He asked.

"Petunia had purple eyes when I looked at her, like a witch," I said. "I think if you tell me how you met each other it will make more sense."

"Well, OK," Geronimo said. He began his story of how he met his crush.

"I was a little mouselet at the time. I lived with my sister Thea, my cousin Trap, and Grandfather William. This angry mob had swarmed into the village that I lived in. They wielded torches and pitchforks, and were setting houses ablaze."

"Why did they do that?" I asked. "I don't know," Geronimo said. "Don't interrupt." He continued with his story.

"Well, mice were scampering from their burning houses, and I would've too if I didn't see a little mouselet from the corner of my eye."

"You mean Petunia?" I asked. "Yes," Geronimo said. "She was in a burning house, and was standing by the window, about to jump out. I dove under the window as she jumped, and caught her. Then we ran away holding hands and escaped the doomed village."

"That's some story," I said. "Well, it is almost time for bed," Geronimo said. I walked into my room and Geronimo tucked me in.

"Good night," He said. He closed the door. As I lied in bed I kept thinking why the mob had destroyed the village. I had no idea how soon I would get my answer.


	6. Jessie

Bugsy scampered out onto the backyard. She wanted to make sure the strange boy wasn't watching her. Much to her relief, he was gone.

However, just as she was about to go, a mouselet appeared from on top of a tree branch. It was the strange girl who had moved in to the city.

Bugsy recognized her as the mouse Bratfur had described had beat him up. It sent a chill up her spine. "Who are you?" She asked. "As far as your concerned, I'm nobody," The girl said.

"OK," Bugsy replied. "So your new?" "I just came yesterday," The girl replied. Bugsy stared at her. "Well, my names Jessica," The girl said. "Jessie for short."

"My names Bugsy Wugsy," Bugsy said. All of a sudden, Jessica's face lit up. "Bugsy, eh?" "Yeah, you sound like you've been looking for me."

"Uh huh," Jessica said. "Uh, Jessie, can you explain to me why this mouselet has been watching me since yesterday," Bugsy asked.

"That's my little brother, Rudolph," Jessie said. "We call him Rudy for short." "What do you mean, 'we'?" Bugsy asked, suspiciously. "You don't need to know," Jessica said. "Hey, can you come with me somewhere?"

"For how long?" Bugsy asked. "For about three weeks," Jessie said. "But I have school," Bugsy replied. "I can't go."

"So, you cannot come because of a learning house?" Jessie inquired. "Yes," Bugsy replied. "So, if this school was somehow destroyed, then you would come with me?" Jessica asked. "Well, probably, but how's the school going to get destroyed?" Bugsy asked.

"You'll see" Jessie said. She jumped down from the tree and started to disappear into the darkness. "You wait and see." She fully disappeared into the darkness.

"That was odd," Bugsy said. She scampered back into her house.

Meanwhile, Punk Rat was walking down the street when he bumped into Isaac. "Hey doofus, why don't you watch where your going?" He said. Isaac took no notice of the name he was called. He was too busy staring at something.

"Punk Rat, how did you get that paw mark?" "A girl slapped me," Punk Rat replied. "What happened next?" Isaac asked. "I blacked out."

"Ben told me you taunted Bratfur for getting beaten up by a girl," Isaac said. "And now you got knocked out with one hit?"

"I could've taken her," Punk Rat said. "But that hand stung me like viper venom." "So you admit you were beaten up by a girl?" Isaac said. Before Punk Rat could reply, a mouse turned up in front of them.

"Bratfur!" The two mice cried. "Where were you." "I was kidnapped by the mice who beat me up and they…Punk Rat, where'd you get that paw mark?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Punk Rat asked. "Well, anyway, they asked if I knew a mouse called Pandora Woz."

"Who's Pandora Woz?" Punk Rat asked. "That's what I told them," Bratfur said. "So they let me go." Carmen came running to them.

"Hey, Bugsy told me…Punk Rat-?" "Don't even think about it," Punk Rat said. "Well, Bugsy told me that a boy was watching her and his sister had a conversation with her and wanted her to come with them to a place for three weeks."

"What did she say?" Isaac asked. "She said no," Carmen said. "Hey, who are you planning on being for Halloween?" Bratfur asked. "A fairy," Carmen said.

"That's too girly," Punk Rat said. "I am a girl," Carmen said. "It's still girly," Punk Rat said. "Whatever," Carmen said.

She walked away. Soon all of the mice had walked off.

Meanwhile, A scientist, Professor von Volt was hosting a science club. "Ladies and Gentlemice, I'd like to show you my new invention," He said. I was one of the mice there in the audience, as well as Geronimo.

He pulled away the curtains to reveal his invention, a giant Magnet. "It is the Mouse-Magnet," He Said. Everyone clapped. "What does it do?" I asked. "You'll see," Professor von Volt said.

"I'll need a volunteer," He said. Everybody raised their paws up into the air. "You," The Professor said, pointing to Geronimo. Geronimo hopped out of his seat and jumped onto the stage.

"Stay where you are," Professor von Volt said. Geronimo stood as still as he could. The Professor pressed a button on his invention, and immediately Geronimo was floating in the air.

"!" Geronimo cried. "Don't be afraid," The Professor said.

Geronimo then floated towards the giant magnet. He was soon attached to it. Everyone clapped. Professor von Volt pressed the button again, and Geronimo fell to the ground.

"This is fabulous," Mice cried. "Thank you," The Professor said. "Thank you." As the mice were leaving, a female reporter with blonde hair came up to him.

"Professor von Volt, how do you feel about science?" She asked. "I think it is one of the best things in the world," He said.

"What do you think about magic?" The reporter asked. "Magic?" The Professor asked. "I think it is nonsense made from our mind."

"How do you feel then about witches?" The reporter asked. "I don't think they even exist," The Professor said. "I doubt science and magic can co-exist together. I wouldn't want any witches or wizards or warlocks in this city." With that, he stormed off. As soon as he left, the reporter changed.

Her snout became longer. Her hands grew into claws. Her toes shrank until she had none. Her blue eyes changed into a glowing purple. She wasn't a mouse, she was a witch.

"Well then," She hissed. "I don't think this city's big enough for the both of us."


	7. Isaac's Story

I was watching TV with Penniford and Saveanna. Like the other day, all that was on was Barbie and My Little Pony. We got so bored we flipped to the news that adults usually watch. We got the shock of our lives.

The school we went to was being destroyed. A tornado had collided with it, knocking it down. Flames were inside, growing bigger each second. Firefighters had come and were putting them out with water hoses.

"Hey, isn't that our school?" Penniford asked. "Of course it is," Saveanna replied. My eyes were glued to the screen. My jaw had hit the ground.

Geronimo entered the room. He stared at the TV in shock. I turned to him, my mouth hanging open. "Who could've done this?" I asked.

Meanwhile, Bugsy was going around asking mice one question: What did they feel about witches? It was no surprise that mice were jumping in the air and yelling, "Of course not!"

Bugsy eventually came across Isaac. "Isaac, what's your opinion on witches?" "I'm not that fond of them," Isaac admitted. "Ever since a few weeks ago."

"What happened?" Bugsy asked. "One of my elf friends, Buddy was his name, was playing around with me when I saw a woman standing beside a huge rock."

"What did she look like?" Bugsy asked. "She was rather tall, standing about eight feet tall," Isaac explained. "She appeared to be in her mid-twenties. She had blonde hair and brown fur. She also wore gloves, had bigger than usual nostrils, and had purple eyes."

"Then what happened?" Bugsy asked. "She started singing, and Buddy immediately started following her," Isaac said, his voice getting more urgent each second. "Then he walked away with her, holding her hand."

"Did he come back?" Bugsy asked. "A day later he did," Isaac said. "But he wasn't the same." Bugsy was intrigued. "What do you mean, he wasn't the same?" She asked.

"He became lazy, and didn't like to play, sing or dance anymore," Isaac said. "Father thinks the womanwas a witch that took his normal personality."

Bugsy started to scratch her head as if she had head lice. "That's freaky," She said. "And that's not all," Isaac said. "There was a Drow, you know them, right?"

"Yeah, the evil and corrupt versions of normal elves," Bugsy said. "Well, anyway, Blade, the son of the Leader of the Drows was led away by the same woman the day after Buddy returned. When he came back, he was happy and cheerful. In other words, he was like Buddy used to be."

"I bet a witch stole his darkness," Bugsy said. "Now it's no surprise I've become wary of the witches. When I see a woman with gloves or big nostrils, I pass to the other side of the street."

Bugsy was shuddering. All of a sudden, a gloved hand rested on her shoulder. Bugsy looked up, and she nearly screamed.

An old lady was standing behind her. She appeared to be in her late fifties. She had grey fur and wore a dress that was blue with the skirt being purple. She had blonde hair and had a tiny hat with a flower on it. She had a cane that she walked with. She wore tiny glasses, and had purple eyes, which was what got Bugsy's attention.

"High there, sveeties," The woman said. She spoke with a Norwegian accent, and she couldn't pronounce the letter w, instead replacing it with a v.

"I bet you vould vant some scrrrrrumptious chocolates," She said. Bugsy noticed that she couldn't say the letter r correctly either. It was as if she fumbled around with it before spitting it out.

The old lady held out a chocolate bar. "Uh, no thanks," Bugsy said. "I'm not hungry." "Oh, but you must be," The lady said. "You haven't eaten in thrrrrree hours."

"How did you know that?" Bugsy asked. "Old ladies know more than most mice vould except," The lady said. Bugsy started to walk away, but the woman grabbed her by the collar. She immediately shook her away.

"Creep," Bugsy said and ran off. The woman turned to find Isaac, but he too had high-tailed it out of there. The woman sighed. "If only they ate the chocolate," She said. "Then their powers would be transferred to me."

She sighed again. "The Grand High Witch won't be happy." She hobbled away in search of more children.

**Well, that's the end of the chapter. And in case you're wondering, I did get some of these ideas like the purple eyes from the book and movie, The Witches.**


	8. Call from Creepella

The phone had rung in Geronimo's house. Geronimo ran over to get the phone. He accidently stepped on his tail. "SQUEAK!" He yelled. He stared at his crooked tail. "Cheese niblets," He grumbled. He bandaged up his tail and ran over to the phone. When he saw the caller's number, he nearly fainted.

It was Creepella von Cacklefur, a beautiful yet scary and frightful mouse who lived in the Valley of the Vain Vampires. She had a crush on Geronimo.

Shaking, Geronimo picked up the phone. "Hello Creep, I mean Creepella," He said. "Why hello," Creepella's said. "Don't worry; I'm not here to get you to marry me, although you might marry me when you come anyway."

Geronimo sighed with relief. "Then what are you here for?" He asked. "You need to come with me to the Valley of the Vain Vampires," Creepella said. "We are going to Monster Valley there."

Geronimo gulped. Monster Valley? That place must have hideous goblins and trolls and other creatures like that. "Do I have to go?" He asked.

"Bugsy might be in danger if you don't," Creepella said. Geronimo shot up into the air so high he high fived to ceiling.

"What are you talking about?" He screamed. He didn't want his future niece-in-law to be in danger. You're wondering how she would be his niece-in-law. It has something to do with Petunia and a wedding.

"Of course I'll go," Geronimo said. "What am I up against?" "An army of goblins and an assembly of witches," Creepella replied. Geronimo jumped up into the air and not only high fived the ceiling, he kissed it too.

"I have to face witches?" He cried. "They could turn me into a mouse!" "You are a mouse," Creepella said. "Oh, I forgot," Geronimo said. "Hey, I thought you didn't believe in witchcraft," Creepella said.

"I just remembered that," Geronimo said. He then attempted to act cool. "Of course I don't believe in those witches who could turn me into a frog." He started quivering. "Or a flea, or a hot dog, or a mouse…"

"You are a mouse," Creepella said once again. "I know," Geronimo said. "Well, are you coming?" Creepella asked.

"Yes," Geronimo said. "That's all I wanted to hear," Creepella said. She hung up. Suddenly, Professor von Volt burst into the room. "GE-RONIMO!" He cried. Geronimo jumped into the air for the third time and not only high fived the ceiling and kissed it, he broke right through it and soured through the air.

He soured down and crashed head-first into the ceiling, creating another hole. He crashed into a shelf of books. Books flew everywhere. One book knocked over Aunt Sweetfur's prized rose-winning trophy, and it crashed into a million pieces on the ground.

"Sorry," The Professor said. "That's OK," Geronimo said sarcastically. "What was so important that you had to scream in such an uncivilized way?"

"It's too awful to be described," Professor von Volt said. "You must see it for yourself." Geronimo was intrigued.  
>He followed The Professor into his car and they drove off. They soon reached The Professor's office. Geronimo scampered in and gasped at what he saw.<p>

It was The Professor's Mouse Magnet. The Magnet was in a million pieces and there were dents and scratches on it.

"Who could have done this?" Geronimo asked. "I don't know?" The Professor cried. "If they didn't like it they didn't have to see it."

"This is horrid," Geronimo said. "I know," The Professor said. "Who have I wronged that they had to do something like this?"

Unbeknownst to them, a woman stood in the corner. She was the reporter, or should I say witch, who had asked The Professor about his thoughts on witchcraft. She giggled.

"My work on this stinky little carbuncle is complete," She said and disappeared.


	9. The Woman in Black

Me and Isaac were building our tree house. We were almost done. We already had the window, the door, and even the bedroom. It was Isaac's idea to make a bedroom purely out of fun.

Just as we finished it a woman appeared out of nowhere under the tree. She had pale skin and had jet black hair and wore an equally black hat. In fact, her entire dress that came down to her feet, that had black shoes, was black. It gave me the chills.

"What a nice tree house you are building," She said. Her voice sounded sweet but disturbing at the same time. I didn't say a word to her. The woman took out a purse that was, of course, black. She reached into it.

"Come down from that tree house and I will give you a gift," She said. By now Isaac had dropped his hammer and was looking down at the woman. He didn't seem as disturbed by her as I was.

The woman was fishing around in her purse and finally seemed to grab hold of something. She pulled it out. It was a chocolate bar.

"Come down and I shall give this chocolate bar to you," She said. The chocolate bar smelled so sweet. If you want to know how it smelled, think of the smell of your favorite flower. Then add a thousand. That's how good it smelled.

I wasn't just about to go down that tree. That woman seemed kind but there was something about her voice, something about that weird grin, which made me wary of her presence. Once, Aunt Sweetfur told me that looks can be deceiving, and that the most dangerous things often don't look dangerous. I decided that this woman was trouble.

It was then that I noticed Isaac was not by my side. Santa's son was already climbing down that tree to the woman with her arm stretched towards him, the chocolate bar still in her hand, the smell swallowing us whole.

Suddenly, we heard Jessica's voice from inside the house. "Benjamin, come inside! Dinner is ready!"

I jumped down the tree and ran into the house while Isaac ran off to his cottage that held a mini-sleigh so he could go back to his father.

The woman was walking away now. She had put the chocolate bar back into the purse. Petunia was also in the house as well. "Petunia, I saw a weird woman outside," I said. "I think she may have been a witch."

Petunia sighed deeply. "I believe you, Benjamin," She said. "I do." I wasn't really listening to what she said. I was too busy staring into her eyes. Her purple eyes.

"Benjamin, your late," Punk Rat said. I had said we were going to play a baseball game at 5:00 pm, but I had gone with Isaac to play a detective game at 4:40 pm and was having so much fun I completely forgot about baseball.

"Sorry I'm late," I said. "Sorry doesn't help win the game," Tasha said. Even though Tasha was in the St. Nick's Elves group, she could still be a jerk. Bugsy was the pitcher.

I grabbed a baseball bat and waited for Bugsy to throw the ball.

Suddenly, we all heard a voice, as if someone singing. "Maio, maio, maio, maio, maio, mai." Bugsy dropped the ball. She seemed hypnotized by the singing. Everyone else also seemed hypnotized. Their pupils had shrunk to the size of a mere dot. Their mouths watered as if they were being served their favorite food in the entire world.

Punk Rat and Tasha, however, didn't appear to be hypnotized by the song at all. "Come on," Punk Rat was saying. "We got a game to play." The mice ignored him. Bugsy then started to run to the source of the song. The other mice followed.

I craned my neck and watched them run. I then caught sight of two mouselets standing behind the corner of a building. It was Jessie and Rudolph. They were the ones hypnotizing the mice. Rudolph was ushering me to come to them. I immediately ran off.

"Oh come on!" Punk Rat yelled. He threw his baseball bat to the floor in frustration.

I ignored him and ran until I was standing behind the small crowd of mouselets. It wasn't long before Punk Rat and Tasha were standing in front of us.

"This had better be good, Stilton," Punk Rat said. He then stared at Jessie. "Hey, you're the girl who slapped me cross-eyed the other day," He said.

"You got up in my face," Jessie replied. By now, everyone had snapped out of the trance. "What's going on?" Someone asked. "Jessie, what are you doing here?" Bugsy asked.

"I need to take you off to the Valley of the Vain Vampires," Jessie answered. "The Valley of the Vain What?" Punk Rat asked.

"Valley of the Vain Vampires," Rudolph said. "You see, Bugsy here is a…Bugsy, where are you?" Bugsy was gone.

"There she is," I said. Bugsy was running with her tail between her legs. "Bugsy, come back!" Jessie yelled. Bugsy wasn't listening.

Suddenly, Isaac came by. He watched Bugsy run and soon caught sight of someone else. It was the old lady who had tried to bribe Bugsy and Isaac with a chocolate bar. She was hiding near a cottage, and had her arms spread out, waiting for Bugsy to get close enough.

"Bugsy, watch out!" He cried. Too late.

**Well, that's the end of chapter nine. And this is the first chapter in this story where I put a dash to replace the meanwhile. From now on I will be using the dash instead of meanwhile to tell what's happening at another place.**


	10. The Witch in the Bathroom

**Note: I wrote that I put a dash in the last chapter but it didn't appear. It's because this stupid computer won't type in certain things like dashes and lines.**

The woman snatched Bugsy with her hands. They didn't have gloves on. Isaac stared at her hands in shock and horror, and we soon realized why.

Her hands were bony and each finger hand a two-inch long claw. Her hands were yellow and wrinkly. For a moment we stared at the woman's freaky hands. Then the woman disappeared into a deserted mall with Bugsy.

We didn't waste a second. We scampered through the door. The woman and Bugsy were gone. "Where is she?" Punk Rat asked. "Look," Tasha said, pointing to an open door leading to the bathroom.

Everyone dashed over to the door, but most of the boys stopped dead in their tracks. It was the woman's bathroom. "Are you serious?" Punk Rat asked. "This is totally not awesome," Malcolm said.

"Well, we're going to have to go in anyway," I said. "That is why Punk Rat shall go first." With that, I grabbed Punk Rat by the arm. "No, no!" He cried. I ignored him and flung him into the bathroom. "Noooooo!"

Then we fought to get through the door. When we were finally inside, we checked all the rooms. I opened one door and was appalled. I saw Saveanna using the toilet. She turned around as if someone had stuck a screwdriver into her bottom.

"Benjamin, what are you doing in the woman's bathroom?" She cried. "It's a long story," I said. "But the short version is-."

I was cut off by Isaac shouting, "I found her. I found Bugsy and her kidnapper." Immediately, everyone dashed to Isaac, and he was right.

Bugsy was standing in a corner and her kidnapper was facing us, unblinkingly. She was in her true form. Not the jolly old lady, but a hideous monster.

She had wrinkly yellow skin and short grey fur just visible. She had bright purple eyes. She wore black shoes with square ends. She also wore a rather stylish black gown that went all the way down to her feet.

It was a ghastly sight. We were all gazing at this woman's features. "Rat-munching rattlesnakes!" Isaac yelled. "What the heck is that?" We then heard a loud THUMP and turned around.

Punk Rat was lying on the floor, his eyes closed, his tongue hanging out, and his left leg sticking up in the air. I stared at him, my eyes wide open. Even the kidnapper was staring at the unconscious body.

At that moment Saveanna walked out of the bathroom. "OK Benjamin," She said. "Now will you tell me why-?"

She stopped and stared at the woman before her. There was silence, and then she let out a loud scream. "Quiet," Tasha said. Saveanna stopped.

We all looked at the woman again. "I see ve have some company," The woman said. Her voice was different. She still had trouble pronouncing her w's and r's, but now, instead of speaking with a soft and gentle voice like she did when she met Isaac and Bugsy, she spoke with a gnarled growl.

"I know vhat you are here for," The woman said. As she spoke, blue spit shot out of her mouth. The spit was as blue as a blueberry. I had heard from Petunia that witches have blue spit, so I knew instantly that this woman really was a witch.

The witch continued. "You vant to stop the Grand High Vitch from achieving her goal." _Grand High Witch? _I thought to myself. _The witches have a leader?_

"You rrrrepulsive little rrrrunts vill not stop the vitches from rrruling Mouse Island," The witch continued. "You have seen me and know vhat I am, so I cannot allow you to live."

Seconds later, green lasers shot out of her eyes. It hit Malcolm in his chest, and he flew into a wall, knocking him out. "Oh no you didn't," Liza said. Malcolm and Liza had a crush on each other.

Before anyone could react, Liza jumped through the air and gave a swift jump-kick to the witch's chest. The witch staggered back. "You smelly brrrat!" She growled. She pointed her long, bony finger at Liza and lightning shot out. She dodged.

Suddenly, Jessie shot out her hand in front of the witch. A yellow light shot out and hit the witch in her chest. She crashed to the ground, unconscious. We grabbed Bugsy and took off. Punk Rat got up and ran too.

We didn't stop running until we were all the way at Geronimo's house. We banged on the door. "Let us in!" We yelled. Geronimo opened the door. We ran in and trampled him.

Then we grabbed anything we could and used it to block the door. We even used Geronimo to block it. "Benjamin?" He asked.


	11. The Chat

As Geronimo pushed away all the things we had used to block the door, we were all talking to each other.

"Bugsy, you need to come with us," Jessie said. "Why?" Bugsy asked.

"You need to help us stop the Grand High Witch," Rudolph said. "That witch was after me," Bugsy replied. "If I go, there's the chance they'll capture me and I'll somehow help them in their plan."

"But there's also the chance that you'll help stop her as well," Jessie said. "But why do they need me now?" Bugsy asked. "You'll find out when we get to the Valley of the Vain Vampires," Rudolph replied.

"You mean the place where Creepella lives?" I asked. "Yeah," Jessie said. "Mom's good friends with her." "You should also come," Rudolph said, pointing at the rest of us.

"No way!" Punk Rat cried. "She gave my mom a concussion because she thought that she was in love with Geronimo."

"I'll give you fifty bucks," Rudolph said. "I'm in," Punk Rat said. Trap and Thea then came in. "Punk Rat, why are you here?" Thea asked.

"He got scared by a woman," Isaac said. "He got frightened so much he fainted." "Oh, and who was it that yelled, 'Rat-munching rattlesnakes' when you saw her?" Punk Rat inquired.

"What are you talking about?" Trap asked. "We saw a witch!" We cried. "Ben, witches are not real," Geronimo said.

"Oh yes they are," Malcolm said. "She zapped me with some short of eye-laser. It was a good thing it only stuns mice."

"It was after me," Bugsy said. "She said that we would not interfere with this Grand High Witch's plan of Mouse Island domination."

"If this is a plan to scare me out of my wits like Punk Rat did with that rubber spider," Geronimo began, but was cut off by Punk Rat. "It was hilarious," He said. "He jumped up on the chandelier."

"As I was saying," Geronimo said, trying no to lose his cool. "If this is a plan to scare me, it is clever, but your going to have to come up with something else to make me believe this."

"You saw Santa Claus and living snowmen last year," Isaac said. "And your having trouble believing this?" "OK, I believe you," Geronimo said. "Plus, you were on the phone with Creepella talking about goblins and witches," Trap said. "How did you know that?" Geronimo asked.

"Pranksters like me have to be cunning and sneaky to be good pranksters," Trap answered. "I know a lot about you, not just because I'm your cousin, but also because I read your diary."

"YOU READ MY DIARY?" Geronimo cried. "I thought those were for girls," Thea said. Suddenly, a second Trap opened up the door and came inside.

"Moldy mozzarella!" Geronimo cried. "There's two of you!"

"What are you talking about?" Trap 2 asked. Then he saw the first Trap. "Oh, that is just wrong," Trap 2 said.

Trap 1 started laughing. "What's so funny?" Geronimo asked. Trap 1 grabbed his fur, and peeled it off. Geronimo squeaked. It was a suit. And underneath that suit was Bratfur.

"Bratfur, what are you doing here?" Geronimo asked. "Wait, are you saying it was you who read my diary?"

"Well, yeah," Bratfur said. "Wait, if Trap is Bratfur, then I must be," Thea paused, and then peeled off her fur. It was really Petunia.

"Whoa, didn't see that coming," I said.

"If Bugsy's going to the Valley of the Vain Vampires, so am I," Petunia said. "Slugsy Wugsy is coming too."

"Welcome to the club then," Jessie said, putting out her paw in front of Bugsy. Bugsy stared at it. Jessie's paw was dirty and dusty.

"Hey, I smell something," Punk Rat said. Everyone turned to him. His snout was in the air, and his nostrils were sucking and sniffing.

Jessie withdrew her paw quickly. "It's getting stronger," Punk Rat said again. "It smells like our school." "What are you talking about?" Bugsy asked.

"Can't you smell it?" Punk Rat asked. All of our snouts went up in the air, and they began to suck and sniff. "He's right," Malcolm said. "it is not very strong, but it's there all right."

"Why did we not smell it before?" Bugsy inquired. "It stinks like burnt cement." "Follow your noses," Geronimo said. "Find the source of the smell."

Before long, our noses had led us to Jessie's paw. "It's the smell of our school" I said. "Jessie's paw is covered with the school's cement."

Bugsy's eyes widened. "It was you!" She accused Jessie. "You're the one who destroyed our school."

"It took those mice two years to build that school, and now you ruined it on purpose!" I cried. "It was for a good reason," Jessie said. "This island is at stake."

"What are you talking about?" Bratfur asked. "We'll have to explain later," Jessie said. "Right now, we have to get to the Valley of the Vain Vampires."

Meanwhile, in a dark castle, the witch who attacked us in the bathroom was climbing up the stairs. She soon reached a room. There was a black throne.

A woman sat in the throne. It was the woman who I had seen under the tree. Only her face could be seen, but just barely, in the dark. It was the Grand High Witch herself.

"Oh my Grandness," The witch said. "I failed to catch Pandora Woz."

"You idiot," The Grand High Witch said. "How hard can it be to catch one little mouse."

"It's not just one," The other witch said. "There is like a dozen of them. They are friends with Pandora."

The Grand High Witch scratched her chin. "If they know of our plan, then they must be coming right now." She grinned. "This could be easier then I thought."


	12. Preparing to Leave

"If there really are witches, then I better get my book," Tasha said.

"What book?" I asked. "The book on witches, of course," Tasha answered.

"I thought you hated those things," Bugsy said. "You said they were the worst mythical creatures."

"I didn't buy the book," Tasha said. "Then how did you get it?" Bugsy asked.

"Two days ago, found the book on my shelf," Tasha replied. "I still don't know how it got there."

"I think I know who put it there," I said. We all stared at Jessie. "I had to give off some warning of what was going to happen," She said.

"Why didn't you just tell us right away, doorknob," Bratfur sneered. Jessie stared at him, then said, "Hey look, there's a penny on the ground."

"Really?" Bratfur asked. "Where?" He bended down and scanned the floor. While he was distracted, Jessie took a baseball bat and landed a good one square on Bratfur's bottom.

"Ouch!" He yelped and hopped around, clenching his bottom. "Hey, Jess, go easy on me," He said. "You already gave me a black eye yesterday."

"Then you should learn to keep the pranks and insults to a minimum," Jessie shot back. Suddenly, a spider crawled down right on Jessie's nose. She was unfazed. She knew it was fake.

"Why didn't you jump?" Punk Rat asked. He was dangling the rubber spider on Jessie's nose. Jessie turned towards him. "Get down, boy," She said as if she was Punk Rat's mother about to discipline him.

"Yes, ma'am," Punk Rat said, and got down, with his paws touching the ground. Jessie brought the bat down on his bottom, and Punk Rat jumped into the air, screaming.

"What's going on in there?" Geronimo asked. "Nothing," Punk Rat gasped, clenching his bottom and hopping around. "What are you doing anyway?"

"I got another call from Creepella," Geronimo answered. "She says she is on her way here in her hearse."

"Well then, prepare our stuff," Bratfur said. Jessie threatened him with the bat, and he shut up.

As Geronimo left, I said, "Pee-Yu. Jessie, you smell like burning plastic mixed with rhino dung."

I wasn't saying it to be rude. It was true. She really needed to take a bath once in a while. Too bad I had to tell her _everything _I was thinking.

Jessie gave me a death look. "I know, I know," I mumbled, and got down with my paws touching the ground to keep me steady.

Jessie raised the bat over her head, and then brought it down.

"Yow!" I screamed in agony. It felt so painful I can't explain how painful it was. Even though my paws were on the ground, I still fell flat on my face. That Jessie did not play around.

Malcolm came into the room. "Where are Penniford and Saveanna?" He asked.

"They were complaining about nothing being on the TV," Rudolph said. "So I had to find some way to shut them up."

He pointed to the two mice. They were on the floor, sound asleep. A can of Pepsi lay in Penniford's paw.

"I found out that alcohol makes them fall asleep, so I replaced the Pepsi with beer," Rudolph explained.

"Are you saying you got mouselets drunk?" Bugsy asked. "Where I live, mouselets consume twice as much alcohol as adults."

"You are an evil little man," I said.

Geronimo came in. "Creepella has arrived," He said. "But there's one problem."

"What is that?" Punk Rat asked. "The hearse can't fit all of you," Geronimo said. "I expected that, so I came up with a back-up plan," Jessie said.

Two minutes later, we were in the hearse all right. We were all stuffed inside the trunk.

"This was your back-up plan?" Bratfur complained. "Your butt's in my face," I said. "Well then get your face out of my butt," Bratfur replied.

"I feel a little guilty that we didn't bring Carmen along," Bugsy said. "You don't need to worry about that," Carmen said. "Rat-munching rattlesnakes!" Isaac yelled.

"Hi guys," She said. "How did you get in here?" I asked. "I was in here an hour after you came in," Carmen said. "Who's snoring?"

"That would be Penniford and Saveanna," Rudolph said. "There still unconscious."

"Uh-oh," Bratfur said. "What is it?" I asked. "I ate a banana a few minutes before we left," Bratfur explained.

"You always fart when you eat a banana," I said. "I was starving," Bratfur said. "Here it comes."

"NNOOOOOOO!" I yelled. There was a loud PPPFFFTT and a terrible smell filled the air. "That smell," Carmen gasped. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Say's you, his butt's in my face," I said. "Oh no," Bratfur said again. "Here it comes again."

"I think I'm going to faint," I said. 


	13. Agonizing Driving

Creepella drove the hearse across the road.

"Are you sure that Benjamin and the others are safe in the trunk?" Geronimo asked.

"Of course they are," Creepella said. "It's not like a stink bomb was planted in there."

_In the trunk…_

"Cheese niblets," Jessie said. "It's been twenty minutes and still that smell is here."

"Why did you have to go and eat the banana," I choked. "I'm going to have to take a bath when I get out of here."

"Petunia is going to faint when they open the trunk," Bugsy said.

"Can we stop talking about what happened twenty minutes ago?" I cried. "It's even more painful having to hear it."

"Sorry," Bratfur said. Then we sniffed the air again.

"What is that smell?" I cried out. "It's not me," Bratfur said. "It was a skunk!" We cried. "I am never going to stow away in a trunk ever again," I moaned. "It's sucking the strength right out of me."

_In the hearse…_

"That skunk sure planted a stink bomb," Geronimo said. "Creepella, you really need to watch where you're going when you're driving."

"I did it on purpose," Creepella said. She stopped the hearse. "What are you doing?" Geronimo asked. "Here, skunk smell is the most widely used perfume," Creepella said.

Geronimo came out and opened the trunk. "Oh my," He said. "What is that smell?"

"I don't want to talk about it," I said. "How about you come out and put yourselves in a different order," Geronimo suggested.

"Yes," I said. We all climbed out.

"Fresh air," I said, breathing in the air outside. "Finally," Punk Rat said. "I was about to pass out."

"Punk Rat, you did pass out," I said. "That just proves how weak you are. His butt was in my face and I didn't pass out for twenty minutes."

"Let's just not talk about it," Bratfur said. We all took a breath of fresh air and then started to go back inside.

"Wait, how are we going to organize ourselves?" Malcolm asked. "We'll all go in a lie side-by-side rather than all of us squished together," Jessie said.

"Yes," I said. "I am going with her idea for two reasons: 1, Nobody's butt will be in my face and 2, I don't want to get beaten with the bat again."

We all got in and lied in side-by-side, and it worked. We were able to fit inside.

"Are you comfy in there?" Trap asked. "Yeah," I said. "Good," He replied.

Then someone drove up to the hearse on a motorcycle. It was Thea.

"Gerry Berry, I cannot believe you didn't call me to come," She scolded Geronimo. "I was on the phone with you about it but you hung up," Geronimo explained.

"You should've gone right down to business," Thea said. "You were talking about writing a book based on this adventure."

Suddenly, the hearse started. "No," Geronimo cried. "Wait!" But the hearse was gone.

"You can ride on the motorcycle with me," Thea said. "OK," Geronimo said. They hopped on the motorcycle and drove off.


	14. Mysterious Valley

Creepella's hearse had just reached Mysterious Valley, where she lived.

The hearse passed by the Mountains of the Mangy Yeti. From inside the trunk, I swore I heard a yeti bellowing. It gave me the willies to think that a giant monster with huge paws to grab you lives up in that mountain not far away from where we're staying.

We soon reached Cacklefur Castle, Creepella's home. She stopped the hearse.

"What's going on?" I asked, looking around in complete darkness. "How should I know," Bugsy said. "We're in a trunk, it's not like they have windows."

By now, Penniford and Saveanna had woken up. "Where are we?" They asked.

"Now?" I asked. "You decide to wake up now?"

"We have been inside a stinking trunk with the smell of burnt plastic just as filled up in here as we are, and you decide to wake up now?" Bugsy yelled.

"Yeah, I may have fed them 500 doses of alcohol," Rudolph said. "500 DOSES?" I yelled, jumping up in the air, and banging my head. "Ow," I said before continuing.

"You fed them at 9:00 pm, and a normal dose, which would be 20 drops, would knock them out until 10:30 pm, but 500 doses would be an overdose and the clock has been smashed and now they woke up at 1:30 am," I explained.

"You didn't have to be so technical about stuff," Rudolph said defensively. "Can you tone it down?" Carmen asked. "I am trying to sleep."

"Don't even put that thought into my head!" I snapped. "And besides, we're here already."

"Hey, is everything alright in there?" Creepella asked. She was outside now.

"Uh, yeah," Bugsy said. "OK, I'm opening the trunk now," Creepella said.

"Uh oh," Bratfur said. "What is it now?" I asked, afraid of the answer. "I ate an apple when we came outside," He explained. "Eating that causes you to fart too," Bugsy said.

"Here it comes," Bratfur said, clenching his teeth and shutting his eyes. Creepella opened the trunk. We didn't waste a second. Faster than a cat pouncing on a mouse, we shot up into the air.

"Whoa," Creepella said, looking up. "You guys are really jumpy."

Bratfur started laughing. "I knew they would fall for that," He chuckled. "I didn't eat an apple."

"You didn't," I said, puzzled, and then fell right on my face. Everyone else fell on me too. "Of course not," Bratfur said. "You didn't see me eat one when we came out,"

"I have got to start thinking more," Punk Rat said. "How could I fall for that trick?"

Bratfur climbed out of the trunk, and we waited for the others to climb out of the hearse. Petunia climbed out, carrying Slugsy Wugsy, Bugsy's baby brother. Trap also climbed out, followed by - Steven.

"Steven?" I squeaked, almost jumping up into the air again. "What are you doing here?"

"OK, why is everybody turning up in the same place all of a sudden?" Punk Rat asked, confused.

"Liza called me and said I should come," Steven explained. We all turned to Liza. "I thought he would get upset if we had an adventure and he didn't come," She said.

We didn't look convinced. "So you decided not to tell us?" Tasha asked. Liza decided to change the subject. "Hey, look at everything around here, She said.

We looked around. "Hey look, a tree full of walnuts," Bratfur said. He raced towards it and climbed up in five seconds flat. Creepella tried to warn him. "Bratfur, I don't think you should eat the-." but Bratfur had already taken a walnut and bit into it.

As soon as his teeth made contact with the nut, there was a chipping sound. Bratfur had lost a tooth. "This walnut is as hard as steel," Bratfur said, covering his mouth.

"At least that tooth was already loose," I said. "If it weren't, I don't even want to think of what might've happened."

Bratfur jumped down the tree. "That's Angry Walnut Tree," She said. "Not even chipmunks with the toughest teeth can bite through that."

"What is that gorgeous castle?" Bugsy asked, looking at a rather tiny palace. "That's Rattenbaum Palace," Creepella said. "The Rattenbaums are our neighbours, but we aren't close friends."

"What about that place?" Steven asked, pointing at an even tinier house. "That's Squeakspeare Mansion," Creepella said. "It's home two the thirteen ghosts. Billy Squeakspeare, who isn't a ghost, is my close friend, but he can be a tiny bit of a scaredy-mouse."

By now, Geronimo and Thea had arrived on the motorcycle. Thea stopped without warning, and Geronimo flew off the motorcycle and into the Cacklefur moat. "Ooh," I said, flinching.

Geronimo crawled out, covered in slime. "I never want to go on a motorcycle again," He gasped. Then the castle drawbridge opened and smacked Geronimo on the head. "Ow," I said, flinching even more.

Geronimo climbed up the drawbridge, a huge lump on his head, and he dizzily walked over to the Grand Entrance. Without warning, the doors opened and whacked Geronimo in the snout, causing him to fall into the moat again.

"Oh snap," We all said. Creepella's father, Boris von Cacklefur, scampered out. He had grey fur, a black hat, a black suit, black pants, and a purple tie. He was also rather tiny, probably no more than four and a half feet tall.

"Ah, you have arrived," He said. "Come in, come in."

We all ran across the drawbridge and trampled Geronimo, who had climbed up on the drawbridge again. Geronimo then stumbled into the castle as well.

"Welcome to Cacklefur Castle," Boris said. We all looked around and were amazed at what we saw.

**Well, that's the end of chapter 14. And if your wondering how I know so much about the Mysterious Valley, it's because I was reading a Creepella von Cacklefur while I was making the chapter.**


	15. Caklefur Castle

The castle was gorgeous. A bright chandelier hung from the top of the ceiling. Bat paintings were the highlight of the walls and ceiling. And pictures of ancient Cacklefur members lined the wall.

"This place is amazing," Punk Rat said. "If I lived here, things would be twice as awesome. I'm talking parties, laser-games, and beer." He gave me a sly wink. "You drink beer?" I asked. "Yeah," He replied. "I had a small bottle in my pocket."

He took it out and drank it. I wasn't going to waste my time watching a mouselet drinking alcohol. So I followed Boris and Creepella.

"So, what else can you show us?" I asked them. "There's the Patio with the full view of the moat," Creepella suggested. She pointed to the right, and I ran off in that direction.

Sure enough, there was a view of the moat. Truly, the moat looked horrid, but I wasn't just going to tell the Cacklefurs that.

SPLAT! I fell into the moat. I heard laughing. I looked up. Bratfur was on the ground, holding his sides with laughter. He had pushed me in.

"Bratfur, I'm going to get you!" I hissed, thumbing my fists in the slime. Bratfur ran off. The moat swept me off and I climbed out in the garage for antique hearses. I looked down at my body.

I was covered in slime from snout to tail. It dripped off my fur. Also, there was a horrendous stench that smacked me right in the nostrils. It was the slime. It smelled of dog droppings, and I was full of it.

"Do you need some washing off?" A voice asked. I turned around. Petunia had appeared out of nowhere. I was sure she was going to start gagging and choking after smelling the slime on my fur. Then I got the shock of my life.

Petunia started wiping the slime off my fur without showing any ill features. It was like she was immune to the smell. Boris and Creepella scampered up to the same place. They didn't notice the smell either, but I could understand that. The mice in the Vain Vampires Valley loved the filthy smell that mice in New Mouse City hate.

After she had wiped all of the slime off, Petunia sprayed me with perfume to wipe then stench away. Then she walked away as if nothing happened.

"So Stilton, do you want to see the library?" Boris asked. "Sure," I said. "I can't wait to read the books there."

We scampered off.

"Ben, where are you going?" Geronimo asked.

"I'm going to the library," I answered. "OK," Geronimo said. "Be back soon. Chef Stewrat is preparing breakfast for us."

I followed Boris and Creepella and finally found the library. The housekeeper, Madame LaTomb, was dusting the books. I noticed that the shelves with the books all had a capital letter label.

"What are those labels for?" I asked. "It's so you know which monster book you want to get," Boris answered. "M-m-m-monster b-b-book?" I stammered. "Of course," Boris said. "These are all guides to the monsters you'll meet here."

I looked at all the books. "Each book contains information about monsters," Boris explained. "Some information all mice know already, others even spies don't even suspect."

"For example, the book there over at the W section, the werewolf, did you know that any metal bullet can kill that creature, not just a silver bullet."

"And the book at the B section, the book of the banshee, they are fairies from the Otherworld who wail when someone dies."

It was no surprise that this was not making me feel comfortable. "And back at the W section, the book of…the witches."

At the mention of the word "witches," I took off running. I tripped on my own tail and crashed into a room. Two skinny twin mouselets named Snip and Snap stared at me with their serpent-like eyes.

"Don't you know how to knock, phlegm-wad?" Snip sneered. "Sorry," I said and dove out the door. Then Booey, the castle's poltergeist, jumped out at me.

"What are you doing here, little boy?" He asked with a voice that made my blood run cold. "Don't you want to join me in the Underworld?"

I ran down the stairs just as breakfast was served. "It always gets them," Booey said with a smirk. I sat in the chair, my paws gripping the sides like icy claws. I was frozen there. My pupils had shrunk down to tiny specks. I sat motionless.

"Benjamin, what's wrong?" Isaac asked. "Ben, what's wrong?"


	16. The Library

After eating breakfast, I forgot about the scary event that took place only a few minutes before. I was now checking out the other places in the castle. Creepella's niece, Shivereen, was acting as my guide in place of Boris and Creepella.

"This is the mummy room," Shivereen said, opening a door that led to a room of sarcophaguses and tombs. "Do mummies lie in these tombs?" I asked Shivereen. "Of course they do," Shivereen said, walking over to one tomb.

She opened it up and a mummified body plopped to the ground. I practically jumped out of my fur. "Oh my gosh!"

"We call him yellow-eye," Shivereen said. "Why?" I inquired. "Because of his eyes, of course," Shivereen said. She unwrapped the mummies head, and there I saw a big yellow eye, it's pupil the size of a dot.

I jumped out of my fur again. "Oh my gosh!" I yelled. "Again."

"How about we go to the garden of carnivorous plants?" Shivereen suggested. "Well, OK," I said. I was just about to follow her when I heard Bugsy's voice. "Benjamin, come over here!"

I ran over to Bugsy. She was in the library that had scared me silly a few minutes ago. "Look at all these books," Bugsy said. "It contains facts about all kinds of mythical creatures."

"Come and read with us," Snip said. "Uh, I'm not really in the mood to read a book about monsters," I said, and was just about to leave when Snip reached out a long arm and gripped me by the shoulder.

"Don't be such a scaredy-mouse, scaredy-mouse," He said. "If you want to be brave you got to know about this stuff."

I wasn't going to be called "scaredy-mouse" again so I agreed. I then found out that all the mouselets, minus Shivereen who was looking at the plants, were reading books about their favorite mythical creatures.

"Look at this book on Gremlins," Punk Rat said. "They start out as furry creatures called mogwai but if they eat after midnight they transform into scaly creatures with bat ears."

Bratfur wasn't listening, though. He was too busy reading a book on the Yokai, a Japanese shape-shifting raccoon dog. Penniford and Saveanna read a book on dragons. I wasn't very surprised at this since dragons were said to be greedy and Penniford and Saveanna came from a family of greedy mice.

Bugsy was reading on the witches. I really don't know what she had for witches, but for some reason, I suspected I would find out.

Malcolm and Liza were reading about Cupid. Why, you may ask. As you heard earlier, Malcolm and Liza were in love with each other. Reading a book about Cupid reinforces there love.

At first, I had no idea where Jess and Rudy were. But then I looked up at the ceiling and they were standing up there. I really don't know how they got up there. They were reading a book on wizards. A few mice thought wizards were male witches, but this is untrue. Warlocks are male witches, not wizards. There are female wizards.

Steven read a book on the Goborchend, creatures with the body of a rodent and the head of a goat. They were really intelligent, which was why Steven was reading about them. Their intelligence reminded him of himself.

As for myself, I was reading about the one true creature feature. The awesome, the mighty, the down-right scary, vampire mouse. I read aloud:

"Vampires are one of the most legendary figures in folklore. They are mice who feed on the blood of other mice and animals, taking their strength, and can transform into a bat if needed. Vampires hate water because water takes away their strength. Vampires are well known for their strength and speed, and can easily outrun a mouse. Vampires are weak against garlic, wild roses, and hawthorns, so to avoid vampires you must have these. Vampires also hate pumpkins, which is why mice put them out on Halloween. To know if someone's a vampire, make him or her stand by a mirror, for vampires have no reflection, as they lack soul."

"That was some good advice," I said to myself. "Hey, Snip, do vampires live in Vain Vampires Valley?" I asked. "Of course they do, butthead," Snip said. "Why would this place be called Vain Vampires Valley if vampires don't live here?"

"In fact, every creature in these books lives here," Snap added. "They all live in a place called Monster Valley."

"Legend has it that if you enter Monster Valley, you'll turn into a monster," Said Boris, who had arrived to read some books. "But you'll turn back into a mouse once you leave the valley."

"What monsters will I turn into?" I asked. "It depends on your behavior and attitude," Boris explained. "If your mischievous and troublesome, you'll probably turn into a small gremlin or Yokai. If you're greedy and stingy, you'll probably turn into a dragon or leprechaun. Mice also claim if you're related to a creature, you'll turn into the same species when you enter the valley."

"Cool," Punk Rat said.

"It's getting dark out," Said Petunia, who had just entered. "You should go to bed."

"But it's 2:30 am," I said. "You should still sleep so you'll have energy for the upcoming day," Petunia said.

"We'll show you where you'll sleep," Snip volunteered. "OK," I said with a yawn. I then noticed Snip wink at Snap, who winked back. I didn't care much about it though. I was getting tired.

So all of us, minus Jessie ad Rudolph, who were sleeping with Shivereen, followed the twins. They led us to a room. Snip opened the door. "You'll sleep here," Snap said. "What's this place called?" Bratfur asked.

"The room for unwanted guests," Snip said. Then they pushed us in and slammed the door.

"There's only one bed here," Bugsy said. "Don't worry," Bratfur said. "I brought two sleeping bags."

He took them out and lined them up. Then we lied in either the bed or the sleeping bags. "Good night," I said to Bugsy, who was squished inside the same sleeping bed. "Good night to you too," Bugsy said. Then we fell asleep and snored all night long.


	17. Rattenbaum Palace

4 hours after we fell asleep, we woke up to have breakfast. But since the adults weren't awake yet, we decided to entertain ourselves. Jessie had joined us, but Rudolph was still sleeping. Jessie said he hates being woken up.

Tasha took out her laptop to look up something. That something was Monster Valley. She typed in "monster valley – Wikipedia," and waited. Sure enough, Monster Valley did show up on Wikipedia. The bad news was that it didn't tell about the actual Valley, it told about a 1999 fantasy movie.

"That sucks," I said, sulking. "There's nothing to read about on Monster Valley."

"I have an idea," Said a voice from outside the door. It was Snip, and Snap was behind him. "Get lost, water trout," Bratfur said. "Hey, we may be troublemaking twins but we're also expert spies," Snap said, snickering.

"Who do you plan on spying on?" Bugsy asked, intrigued. "Who else but the Rattenbaums?" Snip said. Then he lowered his voice to a whisper. "I heard they have a book on Monster Valley."

At that, Punk Rat leapt out of the bed with such force it literally knocked the others off the bed. "What an idea!" He yelled, waving his paws in the air. "We'll sneak into the house, tiptoe into the Rattenbaums lair where they keep the book, and steal it."

He began thumping his paws on the ground with Bratfur and the twins joining him, making such a racket I was sure that the adults was going to come bursting into the room. Curiously, though, they did not. Then Punk Rat started to sing:

"We'll sneak into the house,  
>As quiet as a mouse,<br>We'll take the cheese,  
>Without saying please,<br>Then as quiet as a ghoul,  
>We go to hear the lot of those fools,<br>Just as things get boring,  
>We start to hear them snoring,<br>The we sneak into the room,  
>So quiet so this isn't our doom,<br>We steal some magic powder,  
>Ask the fools, 'Are you awake?' then say it louder."<p>

"Why do you need the powder?" I asked. "I'm getting to that part," Punk Rat said.

"We use it to find the book,  
>Steal it and a sharp hook,<br>We then sit down and read it,  
>Knowing that we'll need it,<br>Then we go off to the Valley,  
>And meet a girl named Susan."<p>

Bratfur and the twins stopped dancing. "That doesn't rhyme," Snip said. "I know," Punk Rat said. "It's just, I get the feeling we do meet a girl named Susan."

We all stared at each other in obvious puzzlement. "Could this Susan mouse really mean something?" I asked. "Probably," Jessie said. "It's not rare for mice here to get weird visions and then they come true."

Bratfur opened the window. "Are we going or not?" He asked. We jumped up and followed him through the window with our pajamas on. But before Bratfur could pass, Jessie grabbed him and held him down. "Just in case," She said and took out a banana. "No!" Bratfur yelled, but as he opened his mouth, Jessie shoved the banana into his mouth.

"Was that really necessary?" He asked her. "Just in case the Rattenbaums woke up," Jessie said. "Then you can put them to sleep again."

Bratfur sighed, and Jessie whacked him on back, knocking him out the window.

We weren't in the Rattenbaum Palace yet, so we didn't bother tiptoeing. "Hey Jess, how much banana did you force Bratfur to eat?" I asked.

"I took a ripe Cavendish banana," Jessie said. "Then I sliced open the top half of the banana with a carving knife, carved the inside of the banana, and poured apple juice in it."

"But apples also trigger Bratfur's flatulence," I said. "A banana and apple together could knock someone out."

"I know," Jessie said. "So then I screwed on the top of the banana and doused the banana with pure banana juice." I was starting to get worried. "And then I sprinkled tiny pieces of plantain chips on the banana, especially on the top," Jessie finished. "THAT COULD BLOW THE HOUSE DOWN!" I yelled. "Hey!" Yelled a mouse from inside his house. "I'm trying to sleep here!"

"Sorry," I said. We finally made it to Rattenbaum Palace. "How do we get inside?" I asked. "That's easy," Snip said. "This place has been around for centuries. Who knows how old and feeble it has become."

He grabbed the handle and gave the door a hard pull. Sure enough, the door creaked open. "See?" He said. We tiptoed inside.

We split up around the house. Suddenly, without warning, a repelling smell smacked us in the nostrils. "What is that smell?" Bugsy asked. "It's the sink," I said. We looked inside. The sinks water was green and flies buzzed around it. "Come on, before the smell overcomes us," I said. We ran off.

We eventually found the Rattenbaums room. We sneaked inside. Three ladies lied in their own beds. The first was dressed in green and was named Tilly, the second was dressed in red and was named Milly, and the third was dressed in blue and was named Lilly. How did we know? Their names were carved on their beds. "Are you awake?" Punk Rat asked. The Rattenbaum girls didn't move. "Are you awake?" Punk Rat asked again, a little louder this time. All we heard was the snoring of the Rattenbaum girls.

"Their sound asleep," Punk Rat said. We snuck out of the room and continued looking for the book. "Hey, look here," Jessie said. We turned around. There was a door labeled BOOK ROOM. "Jackpot," Punk Rat said.

We snuck into the room. Bratfur then jumped up into the air. He ran around screaming his head off. "It's coming!"

"Oh gosh," I said. "He's going to fart."

"Let's get out of here," Punk Rat said. I took off running and accidently crashed into a shelf of books. It tumbled down and the books flew everywhere. It made such a racket that it was no surprise when we heard the voice of the Rattenbaum girls' grandfather, Shamley Rattenbaum. "What's going on?"

Then I heard Bugsy's voice. "I got it! I got the Monster Valley book!" and by golly, she was right. In her paws rested the Monster Valley book. It was old, a little dusty and some pages were a little torn, but it was still there.

By now, Bratfur had stopped moving and just stood motionless, unblinkingly. We heard footsteps racing to the door. "It's the Rattenbaums," Snip said, and it was. Shamley was the first to arrive. "Burglars!" He yelled. "Come quickly!"

Then his wife, Lady Fifi, came running up behind him. Tilly and Milly arrived too, still in their pajamas, but Lilly was still apparently asleep. "What do you think you're doing here?" Shamley asked. Before I could answer, Bratfur howled, "Here it comes!"

We plugged our noses, and then Bratfur blew gas – right in the Rattenbaums faces. The smell smacked them right in the snout, and the Rattenbaums started stumbling around.

"You guys are really playing dirty," Lady Fifi mumbled before plopping snout-first on the ground. "Good night," Said Tilly as she fell on Fifi.

"The cloud is coming," Milly gasped. "The cloud!" Then she fell of Tilly. Shamley gasped and coughed, and then finally fell down to my paws.

"Well what do you know," Bratfur said. "My gas really is helpful."

"Can we discuss this at Cacklefur Castle before the Rattenbaums wake up?" Jessie said. "Good idea," Snap said. With that, we took off running for the house, the book still in Bugsy's paws.

**That's the end of the chapter. And if you read the first chapter, you'll find out what this Susan character is.**


	18. The Monster Valley Book

We took the book back to Cacklefur Castle, so we could read it. The other mouselets, Carmen, Tasha, Penniford, Saveanna, Isaac, and Shivereen were up. Rudolph was still sleeping. Jessie decided to wake him up.

Rudolph was sleeping on top of the blanket, so Jessie grabbed the blanket and pulled it, knocking Rudy down.

"What was that for?" Rudolph asked. "It's time for you to wake up," Jessie said coldly. Jessie ended up dragging him to the Room for Unwanted Guests. He was too lazy to walk there.

I had the book opened up and I was ready to read it to the other mouselets. Rudolph was lying on the bed and was snoring. His snoring was as loud as ten trumpets making noise at the exact same time, but we were too busy staring at the book to notice.

"Vhat are you vaiting for?" Punk Rat asked. "Why are you talking like that?" Isaac asked. "Like vhat?" Punk Rat asked. "Pronouncing the letter w with the letter v," Isaac replied.

"I was thinking of the vay that bathroom vitch was talking like," Punk Rat answered. "I can't get her voice out of my head."

"Shush," Shivereen said. "Benjamin is going to read to us."

When everyone was quiet, I began to read:

"Monster Valley is probably the most frightening, yet fascinating place on Vain Vampires Valley. It is the place that mythical creatures go to. The first mythical creatures to live in Monster Valley, which were Norwegian wizards and witches, were not born there. They instead travelled from their original home to find a place to live. They chose Monster Valley, and settled in. Other creatures learned of this and joined them. Everywhere, mythical creatures moved on and settled into Monster Valley. Then the ruler of them, the Grand High Wizard, cast a spell on the valley." I paused.

"Gone on," Punk Rat urged. "Tell us more. Vhat spell did the vizard cast?" "Your accent is getting annoying Punk Rat," Isaac said. "Yeah, tell us," Shivereen said. I continued.

"Anyone who entered the valley would turn into a mythical creature depending on their personality," I continued. "And any creature who was vulnerable to natural resources in the island, like vampires vulnerability to sunlight, the wizard cast the spell that inside the valley, the creatures were immune to these weaknesses."

"I've heard enough," Bratfur said. "We have listened to all we need to know. Now we will go there."

"But I'm not finished yet," I insisted. "There is more."

"What is so important now?" Bratfur asked. "I'll tell you," I answered. Then I read again:

"Now, every creature in the valley was treated equally, although there were a few who were xenophobic to those not of their species, but otherwise everything was good. The wizards ruled and declared that everyone had their own rights. They didn't know that some creatures took that law too seriously. The witches thought they had a right. They thought they had the right to rule. These witches didn't care if they were treated well. It wasn't enough. They were hungry for power. 10 years ago, the witches rebelled against the wizards, being led by one only known as The Grand High Witch. They nearly succeeded, but eventually the wizards prevailed. The witches escaped, however, and plotted to rebel again. The rebellion caused a massive set-back for the witches, even those who weren't evil or a part of the rebellion. They were treated unequally most of the time, and there were places that witches weren't allowed to go to, including inns, resorts, and even schools. This went on for 8 long years before the Grand High Wizard declared that witches were to be treated just as themselves. Some creatures were not as welcoming to the witches as others, but before long the witches were treated so well they forgot about the event that took place 10 years ago."

"Are you done?" Bratfur asked. "Wait," I said. "I just have to find out where this place is." I searched the book, flipping to another page every minute. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I found it.

"Eureka!" I shouted. "Monster Valley is in the very center of Vain Vampires Valley."

"Well then, let's go," Snip said. "You do know I could've told you where the valley was," Jessie said. "I live there."

"You're a witch?" I asked. "No," Jessie replied. "I'm a wizard. So is Rudy."

By now, the adults had woken up. Geronimo entered the room. "Mouselets, it's breakfast time," He said. "Chef Stewrat Cacklefur is cooking cheese stew."

Suddenly, the lines that I read in the vampire book flashed through my head: "Vampires are weak against garlic, Vampires are weak against garlic."

"Can I have some garlic bread?" I asked. "Why?" Geronimo asked. "I just feel like having it," I said. "I want the best, please."

"Actually, Bratfur will eat the garlic bread," Jessie said. "What?" Bratfur asked. "OK," Geronimo said. He scampered off.

"Why did you do that?" I asked. "Trust me," Jessie said. "You won't want the garlic bread when you arrive on Monster Valley."

. . .

Six minutes later, breakfast was set. Bratfur sat in front of a plate full of fresh garlic bread. Six slices, to be exact. Bratfur stared at the food.

"Go on," Jessie said. "Eat it."

"Do I have to?" Bratfur asked. "Yes," Jessie hissed. Bratfur was trembling. He didn't want to eat garlic. He tried to change the subject by doing what he did best: being a pest.

He started talking non-stop to Geronimo and asking questions: "Why is it always dark outside around here? Why is Snip and Snap so ugly? When is breakfast over? Why do you always where that silly tie?"

Geronimo gave Bratfur an annoyed look. Jessie could tell what Bratfur was trying to do. "Eat the garlic," She commanded. Bratfur wouldn't own up. He tried to pester Snip and Snap instead.

"Why is your hair red? Why are you such good spies? If your last names were Lee would your first names be Ug? Do you like eating garlic?"

Bratfur was met with steaming hot chocolate soaking his whiskers. As soon as he wiped the hot chocolate off his snout Jessie shoved garlic bread into his mouth.

Bratfur chewed on it, and then said, "This is amazing. Why didn't I eat it before?"

He grabbed the other five garlic bread and ate it all in one gulp. Everyone stared at him in utter shock. I dropped my fork in awe, and it fell on Geronimo's paw. "MEOW!" He yelled. "Why did you just meow?" Bratfur asked.

"That's just like how you meowed last year during winter," I said. Geronimo shank to the bottom of the chair in embarrassment.

"Well, we're done eating," I said. "Can we go now?"

"Go where?" Thea asked. "For a walk," Punk Rat lied. "Well, OK," Thea said.

We hopped out of our chairs and scampered out the Grand Entrance and on the Drawbridge.

When we had passed the drawbridge, Punk Rat said, "Finally, we are going to Monster Valley."

We all ran off into the forest where Monster Valley was.

Halfway to Monster Valley, I saw a bat flying overhead. "Look at that bat," I said. "It's a common vampire bat," Jessie said. "They drink our blood like vampires."

Just as she said that, the bat swooped down at us and disappeared into the darkness. "Where is it?" I asked. We saw nothing. Suddenly, Shivereen squeaked, "It's on your leg, Benjamin."

Before I could look down, I felt dizzy, and I started stumbling around. I crashed into a tree, and sunk to the floor unconscious.

"Oh no," Bugsy said. "Benjamin's dead."

"No he's not," Jessie said. "He's only asleep." Everyone surrounded my body, and Bugsy examined my leg. "Oh my gosh," She said. "What is it?" Punk Rat asked.

"The bat bit Benjamin," Bugsy said. "There are two tiny holes in his leg." Bugsy was right. My leg had two holes in them, and a little blood dripped down on the sidewalk.

As the mouselets crowded my body, the bat flew around in the air. Then it sat down on the ground, where Jessie saw its shadow. It wasn't the shadow of a bat. It was the shadow of a mouse with pointed ears wearing a long cape. And Jessie also saw that the bats eyes were glowing red.

"Oh my gosh," She gasped. 


	19. Transformation

I opened my eyes. I was staring up into the night sky, a full moon glowing like a flashlight. Though it was morning time, in the Vain Vampires Valley, the moon doesn't go down until 10:30 am.

"It's about time you voke up sleepy-head," Punk Rat said. "Vhere am I?" I asked, rubbing my head. "Oh my gosh. I'm talking like Punk Rat now."

"That accent sure is contagious," Isaac muttered. I stumbled to my feet. "What happened?" I asked.

"You were bitten in the leg by a vampire bat," Steven explained. "It knocked you out cold."

I looked down at my leg to see the injury. Instead of a bite mark, I found a paper towel wrapped around my leg. "You were bleeding a little so I wrapped it up," Bugsy said.

"How long was I out for?" I asked. "About twenty minutes," Bugsy said. "If I was out for that long then – oh no."

"What is it?" Bratfur asked. "Then the adults will be looking for us," I finished. "Oh my gosh!" Snip said. "We will be grounded if we stayed out for this long."

It was at that moment that we heard foot-steps coming in our direction. "Here they come," Bratfur said. "Quick, hide yourselves."

We all dove into bushes and behind trees. I stuck my snout out of one bush. Sure enough, Geronimo, Petunia, Boris, and Creepella were walking around the sidewalk. Thea and Trap rode behind them on a motorcycle.

"Where are they?" Creepella asked. "No way would they be out this long," Geronimo said. Suddenly, I saw Petunia start sniffing the air, and then scamper towards the bush Snip and Snap were hiding in. She picked them both up, Snip in her left paw and Snap in her right.

"Bummer," Snip said. "OK, I know your hiding out here," Petunia said. "Come out now."

With a loud sigh, we all came out of our hiding spots. "What were you doing out here?" Geronimo asked us. "We were worried sick."

"Yeah," Trap said. "Plus, Punk Rat stole my pizza."

At that moment we saw Punk Rat stuffing his mouth with cheese pizza. "What?" He asked when he noticed everyone staring at him. "I was hungry."

"Hungry or not, you still have some explaining to do," Thea said. "Oh, all right," Jessie confessed. "We were going to Monster Valley."

"I should've known," Boris sighed. "I knew their curiosity would get the better of them."

"Benjamin, why is your leg wrapped up?" Geronimo asked, suddenly noticing the injury. "Well…I…I got..." I couldn't find the right words to tell him. Luckily, Rudolph was able to tell. "Ben got bitten by a vampire bat."

A gasp escaped the Geronimo's mouth. "Benjamin, we must get you back to Cacklefur Castle," He said. "That could get infected."

"Come on," I said. "Monster Valley is only a few meters away."

"I forbid it," Geronimo said. "And Snip…" Boris froze. Snip and Snap were nowhere to be seen.

"Oh man," He said. "Come on, we have to find them."

Everyone took off running in the same direction that Monster Valley was in.

After running 10 meters, we finally caught up to Snip and Snap. "Snip!" Boris yelled. "Snap! You are in big trouble."

"We are going back, whether you like it or not," Creepella said sternly. "But we're already here," Snip said. It was then that we noticed rows and rows of houses and garages. And in the center of it sat a giant tower. We also noticed that the town seemed to be covered in a huge transparent dome.

"W-w-w-we are here," Geronimo stammered. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Snip asked. "Let's go." Before anyone could stop them, Snip and Snap jumped inside.

Geronimo sighed. "I hate doing these things," He said before jumping in himself. Everyone else jumped in after him.

When we were all inside, I remembered something Boris had told me: "Legend has it that if you enter Monster Valley, you will turn into a monster."

"Hey everyone," I said. "What is it?" Boris asked. "If we're in Monster Valley, aren't we monsters now?"

"He has a point," Boris replied. "Check your paws." We all looked down at our paws. To my dismay, my paws were no different.

"That legend was a phony," I grumbled. Suddenly, Petunia gasped. "Benjamin, your teeth."

Puzzled, I felt my two front teeth. I was shocked at what I felt. Rather than smooth, square teeth, my teeth were pointed and shiny like fangs.

Shocked, I ran towards a nearby lake. I nearly fainted. I had no reflection. "What's going on?" I asked. "Why do I have fangs? Why don't I have a reflection?"

"Benjamin, you're a vampire," Boris said. "And so is me, Creepella, and Shivereen."

They were right. They had gleaming fangs that were just as pointed as knifes. Then we stared at Geronimo.

He didn't look like a monster, but he couldn't possibly _not _be one, for he was in Monster Valley. "What is it?" He asked. "Why are you staring at me?"

We didn't answer. We were trying to find some clue that he was a mythical creature. "You're staring at me like I'm one of the witches from that 1993 Hocus Pocus movie."

As soon as he said "hocus pocus", red lasers shot out of his hands. It accidently hit Steven, throwing him to the ground. It was then that we got a good look at Steven.

He had the same body, and his tail was no different, but we stared at his head. He had the face of a white goat, complete with horns. "Why are you staring at me?" He asked. "Steve, you're a Gaborchend," I said.

Steven felt his horns, and when he felt it, his eyes rolled into his head, and he fainted. We stared at Tasha now. Her black hair was replaced by a horde of green snakes, and her eyes were closed. "Tasha, you're a gorgon," I said. "I know that," She said. "If I didn't my eyes wouldn't be closed."

We then stared at Isaac. He had a pointed nose, pointed ears, and was green. "You're an elf," I heard Punk Rat say. "I can believe that," Isaac replied. Then we heard Punk Rat's voice again. "Hey, why are you so big?"

We looked around. "Down here," He said. We stared down and got the shock of our lives. Punk Rat didn't even look like a rodent anymore. He had small, pink ears, light brown fur with a white patch on his left eye, and his orange hair was now only a tiny Mohawk."

"Y-y-y-you're a thing," I said. Punk Rat stared at his stubby fingers. "I'm a mogwai!" He yelled. "A what?" Bratfur, now a Yokai, asked. Snip and Snap were Yokai as well.

"The first stage in a gremlins life-cycle," Punk Rat explained. "Gremlins are scaly reptilian monsters. To become a gremlin, I must eat after midnight."

We then checked the others. Thea was a vampire, Trap, Saveanna and Penniford were dragons, Carmen was a Jug Woman, a type of Indian witch, Malcolm was a Apotamkin, Liza was a nachzehrer, a sort of scavenger monster, and as for Bugsy and Petunia…we were about to find out.

We stared at them. At first glance, Petunia and Bugsy looked no different than how they were when we were outside Monster Valley.

But then I stared at Bugsy's eyes. "Bugsy, your eyes are purple," I blurted out. "And you have claws." At that, everyone stared at Petunia and Bugsy's eyes. "He's right," Bratfur said. "Their eyes are glowing purple."

"And their claws are two inches long, and sharp at the end," Snip said. "Plus, they have no toes," Punk Rat said. "It's like they were sliced off by a carving knife."

"Hey, those are all hints of someone being a witch," I said. "But Petunia doesn't act like a witch," Geronimo said. "What about me?" Bugsy asked. "Uh…." Bugsy looked insulted.

"Wait a minute," I said. "Didn't Boris say you could also turn into a monster if you were related to one?'

"Well, yes," Boris said. We all stared at Petunia, even Bugsy, wanting an explanation. "OK, it's true," Petunia said. "Half of my family, on my mother's side, was pureblood German witches."

A gasp went up in the group. "Geronimo, the reason those mice burned down our village when we first met was because they were hunting for witches."

A gasp escaped Geronimo's mouth, and before Petunia could say another word, he fainted. "What a wimp," Punk Rat said.


	20. The Vampyrs

We all stared down at Geronimo's body. "I don't think he's going to be happy when he wakes up," I said. "Who cares?" Bratfur asked. "Is it really that surprising that Petunia is a witch?"

"Well really, I was kind of expecting that because it seemed that whenever I look at them, they have purple eyes," I said. "I have to admit, that was a little corny," Bratfur said.

"Hey, look at us!" Yelled Penniford and Saveanna. They were flying through the air with their bat-like wings. It was then that I really noticed how they looked like. They looked a lot like how they used to, but were scaly and, of course, had wings. Penniford was green in color while Saveanna was blue.

"Penniford!" Boris yelled. "Saveanna! Get down from there."

"Why?" Penniford asked. "Because you're heading straight for a tree!" Boris yelled. "A tree?" Penniford asked. Then both he and Saveanna crashed into a giant tree. "I warned them," Boris said.

Penniford and Saveanna fell down from the tree and crashed to the ground. "If I were you, I would watch where I was going next time," Trap said.

Punk Rat was, meanwhile, swinging from vine to vine like Tarzan. "Punk Rat, come down from there or else you'll end up like Penniford and Saveanna," I said.

"How?" Punk Rat asked. "I'm watching where I'm going."

As soon as he said that, his stubby fingers slipped and he fell down onto the grass below. "I have got to work on that," He said, rubbing his furry head. All of a sudden, Saveanna, in her mouse form, appeared behind me out of nowhere. I stared in shock at her, and then looked at the dragon Saveanna. "What the heck?" I asked. The mouse Saveanna laughed before turning into the Snip Yokai.

"Man that was funny," He said. "Thank goodness," I said. "Thinks were beginning to get weird."

"Hey, what time is it?" Snap asked. "It's 10:50," I said. "The sun is going up now."

By now, Geronimo had woken up. "Where am I?" He asked. Then he stared at Petunia and everything flooded back to him. "You're a witch!" He squeaked. "And you're a wizard," Petunia replied. "Why does this always happen to me?" He asked. "Hey, how about we leave this place before we run into any trouble like bloodsucking vampires?" I suggested. Almost immediately after I said that, we heard a hiss.

We turned around. Three mice had appeared out of nowhere, and they were all wearing black capes and had blood red eyes. "Vampires," I guessed almost immediately. "And I don't think they're here to welcome us."

The largest vampire and apparently the leader was 9 and half feet tall, towering over all of us. His paws were all clawed, and he had a pointed red beard. He had red hair as well.

The second was 7 meters tall. His ears were, unlike the others, pointed like a bats. He had blue hair that had a mohawk hairstyle. His eyes struck daggers into my heart. He opened his mouth, and I saw his pointed teeth.

The third was the only female, and was rather small, only reaching five feet. She had grey hair and unlike the others, who had grey fur, she had fur like Petunia's. Her eyes were actually glowing red.

"Who are you?" The leader asked. "I have never seen you around here?"

"We're new around here," I managed to reply. "Hmm," The leader thought, scratching his chin. "I always wanted to know how foreigners blood would taste." We gasped. The three vampires advanced on us, staring at us with their blood red eyes.

Suddenly, Bratfur covered his mouth. He started to hiccup a little. "He's going to burp," I said. "He had garlic earlier, and vampires hate garlic." A brilliant idea came into my head. "Bratfur, don't cover your mouth," I said. "Burp in the direction of the vampires."

Bratfur obeyed and opened his mouth. The three vampires were all headed in his direction, and were now snout-to-snout with him. Then Bratfur burped. Just as I expected, the vampires jumped back. They started coughing and rubbing their face and snout.

"It worked," I said. "But it won't for long," Jessie pointed out. "Let's get out of here." We all ran towards the dome to leave, but the vampire with the blue mohawk jumped in front of us. "Not so fast," He said.

The leader came up to us. "Tell me, where is your father?" He asked. He stared at Geronimo. "Is he your father?"

"No, he's my uncle," I said. "Then where is he?" The leader asked. His voice had softened. "I don't want to talk about it," I said. "What happened scarred me for life."

"Hmm," The leader thought again, putting his hand on my shoulders. "A boy, without a father." The lightning bolt flashed, letting me see the outline of the vampire's body. The vampire turned to the other two. "Touch them not," He said. The vampires backed away.

"I am Altair," The vampire said. He pointed to the other two vampires. "This is Alucard and Amides. I apologize for the earlier attack. I was upset and angry about an incident a week ago."

"What incident?" I asked. "Uh, you don't need to know," Altair said. He then changed the subject. "We are from a family called the Vampyrs."

"Where do you live?" I asked. "We live in a cave," Altair explained. "Do you want me to show you?"

"Sure," I said. Meanwhile, Geronimo had used his magic to make a glass of water appear. He was very thirsty. He was about to take a sip when a deafening scream tore through the air. Alucard had accidently-on-purpose stepped on Punk Rat's foot. The mogwai jumped up into the air and landed on Geronimo, causing him to let go of his glass of water. The water fell down towards Punk Rat.

"NNOOOOO!" I yelled, but it was too late. The water soaked Punk Rat, and it wasn't long before tiny furballs were bouncing everywhere; three to be exact. "This day just keeps getting better and better," I said sarcastically.

**Well, that's the end of chapter 20. Oh, and Altair's appearance I got from Goth from the Silverwing TV series. Also, his line "A boy, without a father," I also got from Goth.**


	21. The Cave

We scampered after the Vampyrs as they led us towards their cave. However, three more had joined us. The three mogwai that Punk Rat had spawned were walking behind Punk Rat, thinking he was the leader. They were lined up from oldest to youngest.

The oldest had black fur all over his body, ears that were like a triceratops frills, and had a white stripe on his head. Not a mohawk, like you might think, but simply a white stripe. He also had sharp teeth like sharks. He was the meanest. The second had light brown fur all over his body, except for his head, which was entirely white. His ears were curved at the top and bottom and he had buckteeth. The youngest had a white belly and brownish-orange fur, and his pink ears were pointed like knifes. He had a regular mouse's teeth.

The oldest was named Dark for his fur, the second was named Beaver for his teeth, and the third was named Pointy for his ears.

Tasha the gorgon still had her eyes closed so she didn't turn anyone to stone, so I was acting like some sort of walk-dog for her.

Amides turned around and stared at us. "Why are you holding hands?" She asked. "If Tasha opens her eyes she'll turn someone to stone," I explained.

"Then why doesn't she just look in a different direction," Amides replied. "OK," I said. "Tasha, open your eyes."

Tasha obeyed and opened one eye. Liza turned to her direction suddenly. "Hey Tasha, I am very tired," She said. "No!" I yelled. Immediately, Liza's fur became hard a cold. Her color faded into light grey, even her eyes. She gave out a scream as her body formed to granite stone, then her screaming stopped. All that came out of her mouth was a few tiny pebbles.

"Liza!" Malcolm yelled. "NNNNOOOOOOOO-!"

SMACK! Punk Rat burned Malcolm's cheek with the palm of his paw. "What was that for?" He asked, rubbing his cheek. "You were clearly about to blow a fuse," Punk Rat replied. "I had to calm you down."

"But Liza is stone now," Malcolm said. "I'll carry her to the cave," Punk Rat offered. "OK," Malcolm snorted. Punk Rat lifted the stone Liza over his head and walked away. "How can he carry that if he's so small?" I asked. "Probably because his species, while short, is also stout," Bratfur suggested. "Also, look at this."

He turned into a snarling grizzly bear. "I can turn into whatever I put my mind to," He said. "Now I can use this to my advantage if I get into a fight."

"Sure," I said, uninterested. Geronimo, meanwhile, was working up some sort of spell:

"Oh magic please make us gorgon glasses for their sight,  
>To shield us from the wrath of their vision's bite."<p>

As soon as he finished his sentence, Tasha had on sunglasses. "It worked!" Geronimo squeaked. "It actually worked!"

"We'll have to know for sure," I said. "Tasha, look me in the eye."

"But you'll turn to stone," Tasha said. "Just do it," I said. Tasha turned and faced me. To our surprise, I didn't change.

"Now we don't have to worry about turning to stone," I said. Then Geronimo tried a spell on Punk Rat:

"This smelly brat, this filthy scum,  
>This horrid little louse,<br>Will very, very soon become,  
>A lovely little mouse."<p>

"Hey!" Punk Rat snapped. "I am not a brat, a filthy scum, or a louse. And I'm already a mouse."

"Actually, you're a mogwai here," Altair said. "I forgot," Punk Rat said. "Hey, it didn't work," Geronimo said. "You do know that here, the Grand High Wizard's magic cannot be opposed," Amides explained.

"Yeah, trying to turn Punk Rat into a mouse in Monster Valley would oppose him," I added. "Oh," Geronimo said simply.

"Well, we're here," Altair said. We stood in front of a cave. We scampered inside.

We had barely been in the cave for 10 seconds when I heard a hissing sound. Immediately, a mouselet jumped out at me. I knew, of course, that this was a vampire.

He had grey fur, jet black hair, green eyes, and was dressed entirely in black, complete with a black cape. Before he could touch me, a tail with a rattle on it wrapped around his leg and pulled him. It was Bratfur. He had transformed into a rattlesnake to fight. However, before anyone got a broken snout, Altair grabbed the vampire mouselet by the cape.

"Farley, these are our guests, not dinner," He said. The mouselet called Farley looked confused. "I know I usually bring dinner, but these are actually our guests this time," Altair said again.

After a long pause, Farley spoke. "These creatures are not from this clan, so why should they be allowed here?"

I noticed that Farley spoke with an Italian accent, meaning the Vampyrs were from Italy. "Hey, you once got lost and had to stay with a pack of werewolves in Italy three years ago," Altair replied, confirming they were Italian vampires.

"Oh, all right," Farley said. "Come, I'll show you where your room will be."

_Two hours later…_

"I never thought blood would taste so good," Thea said, sipping the last drop of blood in her glass. We were all sitting in chairs and benches made of hard mud. I, meanwhile, was still staring at Bugsy.

"I just can't bring myself to believe that Bugsy is a witch," I told Carmen and Tasha. "Maybe she's not," Tasha said, thinking to herself. "You're planning something mean," I guessed. "Witches have blue spit, right?" Tasha asked. "Well, yeah, I said. "If her spit is not the color of a blueberry, then she most certainly is not a witch."

With that, she stood up and walked towards Bugsy and knocked her on the head. Of course, this caused Bugsy to spit on the ground upon impact, and, sure enough, her spit was blue. Blue as a blueberry.

"OK, she's a witch," Tasha said. I realized that Tasha had known that Bugsy was a witch and hit her for no reason.

Petunia got out of her seat. "Hey, how about I show you where the Woz family lives," She said. "OK," I said, despite not knowing who the Woz family was. We all got up and followed Petunia, except Punk Rat and his three mogwai buddies, who were being taught the three rules of the gremlins.

"Where are you going?" Farley asked. "To the Woz family house," Petunia said. "You can't just leave," Farley said. Bratfur turned into a hissing black cat. "OK, you can leave," Farley said. Bratfur transformed into a Yokai and we scampered off. 


	22. The Woz Family

We ran off after Petunia. Geronimo was carrying the stone Liza so he could reverse the effects of staring into a gorgon's eyes.

"Can we stop here?" He asked. "Why?" Malcolm asked. "So I can reverse the gorgon's spell on Liza," Geronimo answered. "OK," Petunia said.

Geronimo set stone Liza on the ground, standing, then he started his spell:

"Reverse the gorgon's power,  
>To turn one to stone,<br>Turn this child back,  
>Into skin and bone."<p>

Blue lasers shot out of both of Geronimo's paws and flowed into Liza. Instantly, the stone disappeared and Liza was back to normal again. She crashed to the ground, exhausted.

"Liza, your back," Malcolm said. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," Bratfur said. "Let's get a move on."

We all ran off. Then, suddenly, a foot half as long as Geronimo's body crashed down, just missing us. Geronimo wasn't that lucky, though. The foot crashed onto his tail.

"SQUEAK!" He yelled. We all looked up. Standing 11 feet tall was a Cyclops. "Never thought I'd meet one of those," I said. The Cyclops looked down at us with his one big eye.

"Well, what do we have here?" He asked in a mocking tone. "A skinny shrimp, eh?"

"Who are you calling a skinny shrimp?" Geronimo asked. "You're the big fatty."

"And your dinner," The Cyclops said. He reached out a giant hand. Bratfur stepped in front of the behemoth. "Get out of the way, Shorty," The Cyclops laughed. "Or I'll eat you as well."

Bratfur grinned. I knew he was going to change into an animal, but what animal could he think of that could fight a Cyclops?

Then Bratfur amazed me. His arms disappeared from his body. I was puzzled by this. Then Bratfur sprouted two lizard-like tails. Now Geronimo looked puzzled as well.

Then Bratfur sprouted three heads. "What the heck?" The Cyclops said. Then Bratfur started growing. As he did the fur disappeared from his body and was replaced by yellow armor. Spikes grew out of his back and neck, which was growing longer than a giraffe's neck. His tails grew giant clubs. His feet had sharp claws on them now. Yellow bat wings sprouted out of Bratfur's back, and he flew up into the air. He was now 40 meters tall, and the Cyclops looked like a pesky fly compared to him.

"How do you like me now?" He asked. "I am King Ghidorah from the Godzilla movies." Bratfur's voice hadn't changed, which was the only thing that hadn't changed. "This is getting way to weird," Tasha said.

The Cyclops stared up at this immense beast. He was just about to run away, but Bratfur wasn't going to let him off the hook like that. He blasted fire out of his mouth, and it cooked that Cyclops's butt, I'll tell you that. When the dust disappeared, the Cyclops was now covered in soot and was jet black. He turned around and ran off as fast as he could, which, I admit, was not very fast.

"Yeah, that'll teach you," Bratfur, or should I say King Ghidorah, said. "I'll warm your backside for you next time."

"Hey, there it is," Petunia said. "What?" Bugsy asked. "The Woz family house," Petunia answered, pointing at a huge house.

We all scampered towards it when the sound of someone singing filled the air. "What is that?" I asked. "Whatever it is, it's coming from inside the house, and Bugsy's hypnotized," Bratfur said, and by golly he was right. Bugsy was running off towards the house. "That's the song you used to lure Bugsy to you," I said to Jessie and Rudolph. "It's called the witch call," Jessie explained. "Witches, wizards and warlocks use it to hypnotize mice. We can tell the difference between an adult and a mouselet, and this is a mouselet."

By now, Bugsy had opened the door and had run inside the house. "Bugsy, come back!" I yelled. We heard a loud thud coming from inside the house, so we instinctively ran in.

We found Bugsy pinned on the floor by two mouselets. One was a girl that looked identical to Bugsy, except she wore a pointy black hat, and the other was a boy that looked like Bugsy as well, but wore a black robe.

"You always fall for that," The girl was saying. Steven rammed into them using his goat horns. "What are you doing?" He asked. "Why were you pinning Bugsy Wugsy to the ground."

The girl was whispering something to the boy. "I can't believe it," She said to us. "You called Bugsy the same thing we used to call her."

"What are you talking about?" Bugsy asked. An adult woman had come in, and she looked like the adult version of Bugsy. "Oh, I see we have some company," She said. "What's going on here?" Bugsy asked.

"Your name is Pandora," The woman said. "Pandora Woz."

Everyone stared at her, then at Petunia, knowing she knew something about Bugsy's past. Petunia confessed.

"Before you were born, we lived in Germany, and then we sailed off to Monster Valley when the mice started hunting witches. There Marina had given birth to the three of your. Bugsy, you were the youngest, and we named you Pandora Woz."

"Then why is everyone calling me Bugsy?" Bugsy, or Pandora, asked. "We thought you were annoying so we gave you the name," Bugsy's sister said. "We also pinned you to the ground when we were young. Then Petunia wanted to go off to New Mouse City, but the rest of us stayed. Petunia took Pandora with her, where you all called her Bugsy Wugsy too."

Bugsy was too shocked to answer. "Oh, and my name is Rebecca, and our brother's name is Ralph."

Pandora finally managed to speak. "Petunia, can I stay here to get to know my family a bit more?"

"Sure," Petunia said. "Thank you," She said. As we ran outside I caught a glimpse of Rebecca and Ralph giving Bugsy a mischievous look before closing the door.

**That's the end of the chapter. And just so you know, that pin trick I got from Home Alone 4.**


	23. The Xenophobes

Bratfur started laughing when we got back to the Vampyrs cave. "What's with you?" I asked.

"They called Pandora Bugsy Wugsy because she was annoying," He answered.

"I wouldn't laugh too hard," Jessie said. "Your real name was Jonathon but they thought you were a brat so they changed it to Bratfur."

Bratfur's laughing immediately turned to yelling and screaming angrily. "How dare they!" He yelled.

"You know, the odd thing here is that this is supposed to be Monster Valley, right?" Isaac said. "Yeah, so?" I replied. "The only monsters we've seen so far are the Vampyrs, the Woz family, and that Cyclops."

"Yeah, where is everybody?" Penniford asked.

"They're all inside their homes because they have nothing to do out here," Jessie said. "It's Sunday. By tomorrow, the weekend will be over and we will have to go back to school."

"Monster Valley has schools!" Bratfur squeaked. "NNNNOOOOOO-!"

Rudolph slapped Bratfur right in the face. "You have to understand that Monster Valley is more like New Mouse City than you think," He said.

"So we'll be going to school tomorrow?" I asked. "Yes," Jessie replied. "And I have to warn you, a few of the students are…I don't know…xenophobic to those that aren't of their species."

"But all kinds of monsters will be going there," I said. "That's the point," Jessie said. "The xenophobes there spend their school years with the difficult task of making others not of his or her species miserable."

"If anyone tries to pick on me, I'll just transform into King Ghidorah like I did with the Cyclops and fry them," Bratfur said. "You can't just go around burning people," Jessie said. "You could get suspended."

"They usually pick on those that are smaller or have trouble defending themselves," Rudolph added. "I guess that means Punk Rat and his troop are as good as dead at school," Steven said.

"Actually, Dark may have a chance," Beaver said. "He may be small, but he's a viper in personality and intent. He'll strike you to the floor with his bite. I should know. He gave me this."

He stuck out his short arm, and his stubby hands were covered in scars. "Well, you're as good as dead, then," Steven said. "Hey," Beaver said, offended. "It's true," Punk Rat said. "You're a wimp."

"Wait, what's Dark doing now?" I asked suddenly.

. . .

A squirrel crept around the cave, not knowing that a dark figure followed it. It found a walnut lying on the floor besides a bush. There were no other animals around, or so he thought, so he crept up towards it.

He snatched it and stuffed it into his mouth. Suddenly, a black and furry face appeared from inside the bush. The squirrel looked up just in time to see the face pounce down on him, knocking the walnut from his mouth. The evil predator pinned him to the ground and bit his head without mercy.

Suddenly, a giant arm reached down and pulled the vicious beast off of the innocent animal. "Dark, I thought I told you not to chew on anymore heads," Thea said.

Dark growled in disappointment. Thea sighed. "No wonder Punk Rat told me to look after you," She said. She walked back into the house.

We were waiting for them. "Finally, your back," Punk Rat said. "Hey Dark, why do you have fur stuck between your teeth?"

"Let's just say we'll have to find something else for Dark to eat," Thea mumbled. "I've already figured that out," Punk Rat said. "Pointy's favorite food is carrots because there pointed, Beaver's favorite food is leaves that he finds on twigs and branches, and Dark's favorite food is squirrel meat."

"That makes sense," Thea said. Creepella, Boris, and Shivereen suddenly ran up to us. "Guess what," Boris said. "You finally got rid of the monster that resides in your lake?" Punk Rat said.

"No, and his name is Gorgo," Boris said. "Well, we got you into a school in Monster Valley."

"Oh no," I said. "What?" Creepella asked. "Jessie said there are bullies that make others who aren't of their species miserable," I answered.

"That's just to scare you," Creepella said. "Yeah, what am I so worried about?" I said. I turned to Jessie. She shook her head, indicating that she was not just trying to scare me. I gulped. What did the new day have in store for us? 


	24. Monster School

I slept in my bed. Actually, it was a coffin, but you probably guessed that already.

Farley had told me that it blocked out the light, despite the fact that he lived in Monster Valley, where the light couldn't kill him, so I assumed the light simply bothered him. I still didn't understand that because in Monster Valley, it always looked like night time.

I was dreaming. Do you want to know what I was dreaming of? I shall tell you.

I was dreaming of drinking the most delicious blood in the whole valley. It was so delicious that I had to find the source. I searched the whole valley, and I found the source. Without thinking I drank it all up, and then got up and stared at what remained of...Geronimo. I had eaten Geronimo.

I fainted, which woke me out of my dream. Farley opened up his coffin at the same time, got up, and opened my coffin.

"What time is it?" I asked. "Its 6:30 am," Farley answered. "School starts at 9:00 am, so get up."

"But school starts in two and a half hours," I said, yawning. "Why do we have to get up so early?"

"So we can watch Carrie, and have breakfast," Farley answered. "Isn't Carrie a horror movie?" I asked. "Yes, and I'm watching the part where Chris and her boyfriend spill all that juicy, succulent, pig blood on Carrie, causing her to release her telekinesis and kill everyone and spill more succulent, juicy blood everywhere," Farley said, closing his eyes as if imagining all of that blood. "And then," He continued. "I shall enjoy my breakfast better."

"Sure," I said. We walked downstairs and took out the blu-ray DVD of Carrie. Before we could put the DVD disc inside the DVD player, a voice screeched, "What are you doing?"

We turned around. Dark was scowling at us. "No fair," He said. "I was about to watch that." We stared at each other, and then Farley said, "OK, you can watch it with us."

"Which Carrie movie is it?" Dark asked. "The 2002 remake," Farley answered. "Does it have blood and death?" Dark asked. "Tons of it," Farley answered. "Alright," Dark said, grinning.

Farley put the movie in, and then he walked away to the movie shelf to put back to empty case. "Oh my gosh!" He yelled suddenly. Jessie and Rudolph were sitting inside the shelf.

"If you're watching Carrie, I'm watching Carrie," Jessie said. "Oh, all right," Farley sighed. We all sat down and watched the movie before us.

_2 hours and 5 minutes later..._

I covered my eyes as blood was spilt and thrown on the ground. Farley, Dark, Jessie and Rudolph, on the other hand, had moved closer to the screen, their eyes wide, determined to get every last detail.

They saw the part where Carrie throws Chris and her boyfriend into a tree, taking her revenge. "Look at this," Farley said. "I can't stand it! It's so wonderful! Look at it!"

This tempted me to open my eyes and stare into the bloodbath before me. When the movie was finished, and Carrie had wrecked her vengeance on those who tried to make her life a living hell, Farley jumped up and yelled, "I'm ready to eat!"

We dove into the fridge and poured fresh cow blood into our drinks, and poured it into our gaping mouths.

"That hit the spot," I said. "I'm ready for school now."

Punk Rat, Beaver, and Pointy had arrived. They were still mogwai, which surprised me. "Why didn't you eat after midnight to become gremlins?" I asked.

"We wanted to see how others would treat us if we came as mogwai," Punk Rat said. "I bet they're going to whoop your furry bottoms," Farley said.

"Well, we're going to have to try," Pointy said. "I wonder how Bugsy's doingat her house."

. . .

Pandora was sweeping Rebecca and Ralph's room. They had forced her to clean their rooms without using magic, and, of course, they had made a huge mess on purpose.

Finally, she finished, and she went downstairs to have breakfast. Rebecca had used magic to make pizza appear, and they ate all of it, leaving only one for Pandora, again, on purpose. Pandora didn't complain; she knew it was useless.

"It's time to go to school," Marina said. She took out three brooms for Rebecca, Ralph, and Pandora. They took them and flew away. Rebecca and Ralph were naturals with it, but Pandora nearly fell off four times.

"Come on Bugsy, don't kill yourself on the second day we've met," Rebecca taunted.

Finally, they reached school and joined us. It was 8:50 am, ten minutes before we had to go inside. We sat down.

Saveanna and Penniford flew down beside us. "What are you doing?" Penniford asked. "Looking for anyone who might be trouble," I answered.

I stared at everyone at school. I saw werewolves, dragons, goblins, trolls, any monster you could imagine.

Penniford was staring in the opposite direction I was staring in. He caught sight of three werewolves. They all looked like mice, but had more fur, black claws, and wolf ears. The shortest had grey fur, the biggest and strongest had black fur, and the leader had brown fur. The leader was staring at us.

Finally, the bell rang, and we had to go inside.

We sat down in our school chairs. Sitting on my left werewolf leader, while sitting on my right was Farley's brother, Victor, who looked like Farley, but with a short Mohawk on his head.

Our teacher sat in her chair. She was a lovely woman who looked like she was in her mid-twenties. She wore a rather stylish purple dress that reached the bottom of the floor. She had white fur and blonde hair, and her eyes were bright purple, but we didn't notice. Her name was Miss Honey.

"Well class, it appears we have some new students," She said, staring at me and the others. "I hope they have a good time here."

We remained silent for a moment. Finally, the werewolf sitting at my left raised his paw. "Yes, William?" Miss Paws asked.

"We will make sure that the..." The werewolf named William gagged a bit before continuing, "Vampire and his friends know their place here."

"Yes," The short werewolf agreed, snickering. "OK, class," Miss Honey said, let us. "Let's do attendance now."

. . .

It was lunchtime, and we took out our lunch to eat. I was eating a sandwich filled with rabbit blood. It was delicious.

I stared at Punk Rat and his troop to see what they were eating. Punk Rat was eating a cheese pizza, Beaver was eating a huge branch covered in leaves, Pointy was eating the best carrots in Mysterious Valley, and Dark was eating a dead squirrel with an apple shoved in its mouth.

I had just taken two bites out of my sandwich when an apple was thrown at me and hit me in the head with such force the apple exploded upon impact and I spit out the sandwich.

I turned around and saw a werewolf sitting behind me, holding another apple. It was the werewolf with the dark fur. I pretended the event didn't happen and went back to eating.

The bell rang, and we put our lunch away and ran outside. I walked towards Jessie and Rudolph. "One of those werewolves threw an apple at me," I said. "I knew something like this was going to happen," Jessie said.

We walked right up to the werewolves, followed by Bratfur, Punk Rat and his troop, and Pandora. "Do you have some sort of problem with me?" I asked.

"I said I would show you your place, and your place is under my foot," William said. "Vampires don't belong here," The dark werewolf said. "You said it, Dag," The short werewolf said.

"Look, I don't want any trouble," I said. "I do," William said, and pushed me. By now, all of the children had stopped what they were doing and were staring at us, but we didn't notice.

"As long as you're at this school, life here is going to be a nightmare," William said. "Do I make myself clear?"

"But," Beaver said, but before he could continue, William said. "But? Did you say but?"

"Uh oh," Jessie said. "I'll give you but," William yelled, and snatched Beaver off the ground by the leg and threw the mogwai into the air. "A perfect release," The short werewolf said. Beaver crashed onto the grass, and shook himself off before getting up.

William turned to Dark. "Well, what do we have here?" He mocked, pointing at him. "This has got to be the smallest-YEOWCH!"

Dark had jumped up and bit William's finger. "The problem with you werewolves is that you're soft," The mogwai yelled, kicking William. The werewolf backed away. "You're soft in the flesh, soft in the heart, and soft in the head!"

Dark started kicking and hitting William. William jumped away to Bratfur. "Well, you'll be a good victim," He said. Bratfur transformed into a cobra, causing everyone to jump away. The cobra hissed at William, but before anyone could do anything else, the bell rang.

"This isn't over," William said. "I will get you." His words were drowned by the chattering of everyone as they walked back into class.

"What a jerk," Pandora said. "You said it," Pointy said. "Even Rebecca and Ralph aren't that mean," Pandora said. "I heard that," Ralph said. "I know," Pandora said.

I was staring at William. He stared back, smiling a smile that made me sick. His words were like a recorder in my head. "This isn't over," I remembered him say, and I realized my problems were far from over.


	25. William's Previous Schools

I stomped away from school in a grumpy mood. Just as William had said, he had made school a nightmare for me when the teacher wasn't there. And I had to go back to the same school tomorrow. Life was cruel.

I was so upset that I didn't even notice that I was walking right out of Monster Valley. When I walked out of the dome, I didn't notice it. I didn't notice I had changed back into a mouse as well.

I walked all the way back to Cacklefur Castle. As soon as I was inside the castle, Booey jumped out at me. "Have you decided to join me into the underworld?" He asked in a deep, frightening voice.

"Ah, shut up," I sneered at him before walking past him. "What rude manners," Booey grunted.

I heard Geronimo's voice and walked into the Watchtower, where I saw Geronimo on the phone. From what he was saying, I could tell he was talking to Trap. And I could also tell that Trap was still in Monster Valley.

"Of course I saw you in your dragon form…" He was saying. He paused every now and then to let Trap speak. "Of course I knew what species of dragon you were…You were a Gronckle…If you watch How to Train Your Dragon you'll know what that dragon is…What do you mean you don't know why you're a Gronckle…I'll tell you why. It's because they're fat and lazy, just like you!" With that, he pressed END and put the phone away.

"What was that about?" I asked. "Trap said he would fry my butt with his dragon breath if I didn't give him my soda," Geronimo explained. "Then he boasted about how he was a dragon, even though he was a Gronckle who is…You heard what I said about it, didn't you?"

"Yes, you don't need to tell me," I said. "Why are you so grumpy by the way?" Geronimo asked. "I went to Monster School for the first time, and already I am picked on by three werewolves who think vampires don't belong at school."

"If vampires don't belong at school then what right do werewolves have?" Geronimo asked. "I asked them that," I said. "The leader, William, said that vampires are freaks because they drink blood."

"That's just an excuse," A voice said. I turned around. It was Victor. "You think they just pick on vampires and gremlins?" He said. "No. They pick on anyone who isn't a werewolf, and when asked why, they use the species characteristics that werewolves don't have as an excuse, like 'You have weird horns' or 'Your feathers are the color of blood' or…the pile of excuses just keeps getting bigger."

"Are you saying they pick on _everybody _at this school?" I asked. "Everybody but werewolves," Victor said. "What do they think they are? The dominant species of Monster Valley?" I said. "Yes," Victor said.

"They're supremacists," I said. "How can those other students stand it?"

"William, Dag, and Glut came only two weeks ago," Victor said. "They were kicked out of their original school after they assaulted a goblin that was in first grade. The goblins older brother from third grade admitted they had been bullying the goblin for some time."

"Wait, William and the others are in fourth grade," I said. "They assaulted a goblin three grades younger than their own."

"Yeah, and do you know what their excuse was?" Victor asked. I shook my head. "They said, 'His ears were pointy like swords and he nearly poked me with it'."

"Were they kicked out of their older school?" I asked. "Yes," Victor said. "They beat up a Naga that was in _kindergarten_!" Victor yelled out the last part. "Hey!" Yelled Grandpa Frankenstein. "I am trying to create a worm and bat hybrid, and I can't concentrate with all this noise."

"Sorry," Victor said. "Anyway, their excuse for that was 'He had no feet but instead had an eel's tail so he belonged in the water'."

"That was stupid," I said. "I know," Victor said. "In fact, William's been kicked out of every school he's been in for bullying."

"Why hasn't his parents punished him?" I asked. "His parents are the ones who convinced him to do it," Victor said. "Me and Altair once went to their cave to speak with them after they harassed Susan," Victor said.

"Let me guess," I said. "They said Susan was a freak for being able to turn into a bat."

"Yes," Victor said. "And do you know what his parents said?"

"They said William has to show others who was boss and then told you that you should mind your own business."

"Yes," Victor said, obviously astonished. "Wait, who is Susan?" I asked. "Our sister," Victor answered. "Then why haven't I seen her?" I asked. "You don't need to know," Victor said.

"So if William has been kicked out of every school before, then he'll probably be kicked out of this one as well," I said. "Yeah, that's why the students put up with his bullying; they know they won't have to endure it for long," Victor said.

"Still, if they attacked somebody at the other schools, then he'll attack someone at this school as well," Geronimo said. "You could get hurt, Benjamin."

"Yeah, I saw him bullying you," Victor said. "He often bullies others before finally assaulting them. You may be the victim."

"Do you think somebody should try and talk to his parents?" Geronimo asked. "We tried that," Victor said. "You know what happened."

"Well, maybe if their talked to them a second time, things will be different," I said. "Maybe," Victor said.

A bat flew towards the window and pecked at it. "Oh, that's Amides," Victor said. "It's dinnertime." Geronimo opened the window for Victor to get out.

Without saying another word, Victor transformed into a black bat and flew out the window.

However, nobody noticed two eyes watching us. "Somebody should talk to William's parents," Petunia said. "I'm going to talk to them right now." She ran away.


	26. William's Parents

"Rebecca, can you get that cup inside the cupboard?" Marina asked. "OK," Rebecca said.

She walked over to the cupboard, opened it up – and nearly knocked over all the cups.

"Jessica!" She squeaked. She quickly calmed down. "Jessica, I thought I told you never to do that again." Jessica squeezed out of the cupboard. "It's about time you came," She said. "It was so uncomfortable in there."

"What were you doing in there?" Rebecca asked. "I wanted to tell you something," Jessie said. "What is it?" Rebecca asked, obviously not interested.

"You remember William, right?" Jessie whispered. "The smelly little rat?" Rebecca said. "Yeah, of course I do."

"He was picking on Benjamin, and now Petunia is going to talk to his parents." Rebecca looked bored. "Is that all?" She asked.

By now, Pandora and Ralph had come by. "What's going on?" Pandora asked. "Aunt Petunia is going to talk to William's parents," Rebecca said.

"Yeah, and I wanted you to come and watch it."

"Why?" Ralph asked. "I want to see how much of a jerk William's parents are, and I figured you'd want to share the excitement with me," Jessie replied.

"Well, I am bored," Rebecca said. "All right."

"Mom, can I go with Jessie for a while?" Pandora asked. "OK, don't be long," Marina said. Jessie took out her wand.

"Take us to a cave,  
>Where the werewolves lurk,<br>So that we may see,  
>If they are all jerks."<p>

As soon as she finished her sentence, the four mouselets disappeared.

. . .

Petunia stood in front of a cave. The cave, surprisingly, had a wooden gate. Petunia instinctively knocked on it, and she heard footsteps coming from inside the cave.

After a few moments, the gate opened. A snout poked out. A man stood at the gate. He had the face of a brown dog, but his snout was shorter. His eyes were bright blue. He had a light brown mane around his head and neck. His ears were pointed up in the air. He wore a businessman's clothe, with a black suit and pants and a red tie. He was skinny and very short, literally only four and a half feet tall.

"What do you want?" He asked, obviously in a grumpy mood. "Can I come in and talk to you?" Petunia asked. "Of course you can," The werewolf replied. "I have nothing better to do."

The man led Petunia through the cave and eventually she found herself facing the werewolf's wife. She had a similar face to the male, but rather than a mane, she had long blonde hair. Her eyes were blue like the man's. She wore the clothes of a businesswoman. She was the exact opposite of the man in height; she was 8 feet tall.

William was standing close by, playing with a chew toy. "Why is she here, Henry?" The woman asked. "She wants to talk to us, Vera," Henry answered.

"OK then," Vera said. "Go on, talk."

"It's about school," Petunia said. William immediately stopped what he was doing and turned towards the scene before him. "What about school?" Vera asked, putting her paws on her hips.

"William had a problem at school," Petunia said. "What sort of problem at school?" Henry asked. "He was bullying his classmates at school for not being a werewolf," Petunia replied.

"So?" Henry replied. "Bullying is a natural occurrence at school. It always happens." Petunia was shocked at Henry's unconcern about the situation.

"I don't think you understand the seriousness of the situation," Petunia said. "Here that, honey?" Henry said, smirking to his wife. "She says I don't understand the seriousness of the situation." The two burst out laughing.

Petunia tried not to lose her cool. "You must understand that this isn't a laughing matter."

"Listen lady," Henry said. "I don't know if you've been living under a rock, but I know everything I need to know about school."

"Henry's right," Vera said. "We went to school and we learned everything we need to know about school. It's stupid, useless, and boring. Bullying makes school more exciting."

"So it's exciting to get kicked out of school?" Petunia asked. "Who cares if he's kicked out of school?" Henry asked. "We can find another one for him."

"William terrorizes the other students and makes them ashamed of who they are," Petunia said. "And you don't even care?"

"It's not such a big deal," Vera said. "And besides, William has to teach those snobby kids whose boss at school."

"Quite right, sugar plum," Henry said, staring up at her. Then he turned to Petunia. "I went to school and boy, I showed them. Nobody crossed me at any of my schools, and look how I've ended up. I have a perfect home, a lovely wife, and a smart young boy."

"But what about the other students?" Petunia asked. She was determined to get through to William's parents. "They'll probably forget it when they're all grown up. If this is all you have to talk about, then it's better if you just leave."

Petunia was about to talk back, but she knew it was pointless. There was no getting through to these werewolves.

"I'm sorry I came in here like this then," She said and turned to leave. William smiled slyly.

"Ah man," Ralph whispered from behind a huge rock. "Those werewolves were real losers," Jessie said. "There's really is no way to get through to them," Bugsy said. "Let's go," Rebecca said. Jessie started to chant,

"Let us leave,  
>This dark cave,<br>And that werewolf,  
>Really should shave."<p>

Just as she finished her sentence, the four mouselets disappeared.


	27. Second School Day

I yawned and got out of bed. It was 5:50 am, but Farley had told me they were going to watch the original Carrie movie. He told me that this Carrie movie would be even better than the remake.

"Where are you going?" A voice asked. It was Liza, who was followed by Malcolm. I hadn't seen them in a while. "Farley invited me to watch Carrie," I explained.

"What's Carrie?" Malcolm asked. "It's some horror film about a teenager with telekinesis powers who goes on a bloodthirsty rampage because of a vicious prank played on her by some school bullies."

"I hate bullies," Malcolm said. "Yesterday at school, this werewolf named William stepped on my tail and called me a 'snake-like freak'. What a loser."

"That's the guy who called me an 'undead vampire moron'. Then he pushed me," Liza said. "He's been picking on everyone at school, now let's go and watch Carrie," I said.

As we were walking towards the TV, I stopped. "Wait, when we watched the Carrie remake, Dark wanted to watch it as well," I said. "Maybe he'll want to watch the first one too."

"Is he here?" Malcolm asked. "He's staying here with the other mogwai," I said. "They have their own room."

We walked towards the mogwai's room. I knocked on the door. I heard a growling sound from inside the room. "Mogwai don't growl like that," I said. After a few moments, the door opened, and I nearly jumped when I saw who had opened the door.

I short creature about a meter tall stood before me. He had reptilian skin and was dark green in color. He had large, bat-like ears. He had long arms with three fingers on each one that had sharp claws, and his teeth were full of shark-like teeth. The underneath of his chin had a short fish-like spike on it.

Then I noticed something on his head. He had orange bushy hair. "Punk Rat?" I gasped. "What is it?" He asked. "What happened to you?" I asked. "What do you – oh, my metamorphosis," Punk Rat said, looking down at his body. "Yeah, I ate after midnight and look at my grand transformation."

"Why did you eat after midnight?" I asked. "Because we were bullied as mogwai, Dark came up with the brilliant idea of transforming into gremlins to defend ourselves," Punk Rat explained. "He took some raw chicken wings and let us eat them. I don't know where he got them from, though." It was then that I noticed Punk Rat was wearing a coat made out of squirrel fur, and suddenly realized where Dark had gotten the chicken wings from, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.

"Where is Dark anyway, Punk Rat?" I asked. "He's right over here," Punk Rat said, pointing to another gremlin. "Also, do not call me Punk Rat. I have changed my name to Punk Gremlin."

"Sure," I said, and then I turned to face Dark. Dark was as black as he was in mogwai form, and he had the sharpest claws out of all of the gremlins. His eyes were blood red. His stripe had turned into a fish-spike on his head.

Beaver and Pointy were also there. The short version for Beaver was that he looked like Lenny from the movie Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Pointy looked like your average Gremlin, with green skin, red eyes, and sharp teeth and claws, but he still had pointy ears.

"Can we watch Carrie too?" Beaver asked. "Sure," I said. Farley came into the room. "Are we watching Carrie or not?" He asked. We followed him to the movie shelf. But when I grabbed the Carrie case, it wouldn't budge.

I pulled and pulled, but somehow, the case wouldn't budge. Then I saw two eyes, and the movie shelf changed shape. It was Snip, and Snap was the movie case.

"How did you like our little trick?" Snip asked. "It wasn't funny," Dark said. "You have got to work on better tricks."

"Says you," Snap said. "We put the DVD in already."

Sure enough, the TV was on, and the title "CARRIE" shown on the screen. "Get ready for a whole lot of bloodshed," Farley said, grinning and rubbing his paws together.

. . .

Altair and Alucard hung from a tree outside of Monster Valley in bat form. They were waiting for prey to pass by.

"Why didn't we just eat them?" Alucard was asking Altair. "Because he had no father," Altair replied. "Is that it?" Alucard asked.

"Don't you forget what happened those twenty years ago," Altair said. "Benjamin reminds me of myself."

"Why did you just ask him where his father was?" Alucard asked. "When I stared at him, he looked just like me when I was hunger," Altair said. "I suddenly just asked him that question."

"I'm so hungry," Alucard moaned. "Don't worry," Altair said. "The time for blood will come soon." As soon as he finished, a Northern Yellow bat flew past them.

"Like now?" Alucard asked, and with that, the two vampires flew up into the air after their prey.

. . .

"I'm so hungry," I said once we finished watching the movie. "This movie is better than the remake," Dark said. "That was freaking scary," Beaver said. "You're a wimp then," Dark said.

Me, Farley, and Victor dove towards the fridge to have breakfast. We drank a glass of blood and then we all ran out to get our school bags.

We ran out the door and transformed into bats. We flew out and towards school. Before long, we had caught up to Pandora, Rebecca, and Ralph. Pandora was spinning around in circles, but we didn't really notice.

When we reached school, Carmen, Tasha, and Steven were already there. Unfortunately, so were William and his gang.

"Well, well, well, look who it is," He mocked. "It's the losers club and their geek face leader." He and his gang laughed uncontrollably.

"Shut up," Pointy said. William stopped and stared at the gremlins. "Who are you?" He asked. "And where are those little furry shrimps from yesterday?"

"Right in front of you," Beaver grinned. "Did you go through a metamorphosis or something?" Dag asked. "A rather miraculous one," Beaver said. "I was never so lucky in my short life."

"Yeah, but now you're a buck-toothed moron," William grinned. Beaver charged at them. "Why I outta-!" Dark and Pointy grabbed him and held him before he could tackle William. "He's not worth it," Pointy said.

"Yeah, listen to the pointy-eared freak," Glut laughed. Now it was Pointy's turn to charge at the relentless bullies. "I'll teach you to call me a pointy-eared freak!" He shouted. Dark grabbed both Beaver and Pointy with each hand and amazingly lifted them up into the air. Ironically, while Dark had been the smallest as mogwai, he was the biggest as gremlins.

"We'll deal with these morons later," He said. The bell rang. "It's time to go inside, anyway."

As we were walking inside, Glut tripped me and I fell down and was almost trampled if Rebecca hadn't pulled me up. I charged towards Glut, but Rebecca and Ralph held me back. "Let it go," Ralph said. I sighed and followed them away. "Yeah, let it go," William mocked.

When we were inside, we all noticed a new student. She looked like a mouse, but was as white as snow. Her entire body, even her dress, was white as snow. Her hair reached her shoulders, her hands were long and clawed, and she hung her head down on her desk, refusing to show her face.

Miss Honey came in. "Before attendance, I would like to introduce our new student, Mizoram," She said. "She is a yuki-onna that has just moved here from Japan."

"Aren't yuki-onnas known as snow woman?" I whispered to Victor. "Yes, they are," Victor said. "What a pale dork," William said. "Now, now, William," Miss Honey said. "Mizoram is new, and doesn't know this place well, so we have to be kind to her."

"Like that speech has ever worked before," William whispered to Dag. The two laughed softly. Miss Honey did the attendance and just as she finished, she seemed to hear something that the rest of us didn't and said, "Excuse me; there is this girl still outside." With that, she ran out.

No sooner had she left, Glut said, "That Mizoram is such an ugly witch."

A frozen block of ice was shot at him by Mizoram and it froze his mouth. "Take that," Steven said. "Shut up, goat-face," William said. Steven looked offended.

Miss Honey came back suddenly and said, "OK, let's get to work." I stared at her, and her eyes shined in my face and temporarily blinded me. There was something about her eyes that looked familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I didn't know how soon I was going to get my answer.


	28. William's Speech and Snotnose

During lunch, Miss Honey had left us to go to another part of school to eat. One thing the students had learned from their experience at school that when the teachers were away, the bullies would come out and play.

Unsurprisingly, William, Dag and Glut rose from their seats and marched up in a straight line over to the teachers desk. Dag and Glut sat in the teachers chair, which was big enough for both of them, while William stood up in front of the desk.

He scanned the classroom. Everyone stopped eating and stared up at him. For a few moments, there was silence. Finally, William spoke.

"I bet your parents tell you your bright, sweet and smart," He began. "Well I'm here to tell you your not, and never will be."

"You are so stupid you will not even be able to spell simple words! Miss Hunky - "

"Miss Honey," I corrected. "Whatever," William sneered. "Miss Honey has taught you nothing! She has not taught you that you are snivelling, cowardly creatures with soft feelings, and…and soft heads!"

"Surely you must be mistaken," A little elf named Rupert said. "Miss Honey taught us to spell rather long words."

William snapped his attention over to the little elf. "This is a grade 3-4 class," He yelled. "You are in grade 3, so you are not capable of spelling long words."

"Miss Honey taught us," Rupert said. "She taught us to spell "difficulty". Would you like to hear it?" William snorted. "I shall find this very amusing."

"Miss D, Miss I, Miss FFI,

Miss C, Miss U, Miss LTY."

"That is how you spell difficulty," Rupert said. "What nonsense is this?" William demanded. "You cannot teach poetry during class. It's ridiculous."

"It's actually quite creative," Beaver said. "Shut up, Scaly!" William barked. Beaver shut his mouth. With that, William continued with his racist remarks.

"I do not like non-werewolf beings. They are stupid brats. I cannot see why they cannot be werewolves like me. I think they do it on purpose!"

"You must understand that it is not our choice who our parents are," A centaur named Ryan said. "Sorry but I cannot understand that horse-like accent of yours," William said. "You simply must learn English if you're going to live in the valley."

The bell rang. "It looks like I cannot teach you your place now," He said. "I shall teach you tomorrow." Everybody got up and took their lunch and stuffed them in their bags and ran outside. Of course we were talking about the speech William gave just then.

"He's mad," Carmen whispered. "He's nuts," Liza snorted. "He's a coward," Tasha scoffed. "The only one here he hasn't bullied is me, and that's because he's afraid I'll turn him to stone."

"Is there anyway to stop him?" I asked. "We just have to hope he'll get kicked out of school," Victor said.

. . .

I sat in a chair in Cacklefur Castle. Slugsy Wugsy, Snip and Snap, and Bratfur were sitting with me. I was reading a book on vampires. Of course, because I had left Monster Valley I had reverted back to mouse form.

Creepella came into the room. "I just got a call from Shamley Rattenbaum," She said. I froze. "He said a stink bomb was planted in their book room three days ago," Creepella continued. "It knocked them out cold. They woke up the day after and got amnesia for the past two days until they stumbled upon a family photo and got their memory back. Shamley also said he recognized Snip and Snap before they blacked out."

Busted!

"Did you steal something from the Rattenbaums?" Creepella asked. "Maybe," Bratfur said. Creepella stared at him. "OK, we took the book on Monster Valley," Bratfur admitted.

"Why would you do that?" Creepella asked. "Do what?" Pandora asked, who just came in. "They took a book belonging to the Rattenbaums," Creepella explained. Pandora was not about to admit she had been apart of the robbery.

"Give me the book," Creepella said. Bratfur scampered out the room and returned almost immediately with the book. Creepella took it.

"We are going to talk about this later," She said and walked out of the room. "Thanks a lot," Snip said. Slugsy flung some cheddar into their faces and giggled.

. . .

There was a knock on the Woz family door. Marina came to answer it. She opened the door, and nearly jumped.

A very skinny goblin stood at the entrance. He was 7 feet tall and wore tattered close and a look of snobbishness hung on his long nose.

"Hello there, madam," He said. "I am Ronald Snotnose." He stuck out his hand, which was covered in little bumps and pimples. "No thank you," Marina said.

"Well, anyway, let's get down to business," Snotnose said. "It's about your daughter, Pandora."

"What about my daughter?" Marina asked. "Well, my boss would like to say a few words to your little cupcake," He said. "Bring her to me. It will only be for about 20 minutes."

"Why can't your boss come here?" Marina asked. Snotnose paused for a moment. Finally, he said, "My boss is sick and can't go out so Pandora needs to come to her."

Marina stared at him. There was something rotten about this goblin. She wasn't going to risk her daughter's safety under the care of this goblin. "I'm sorry. Mr. Snotnose, but I cannot allow my daughter to go with someone I don't even know."

"Oh, but I assure you, Pandora will be fine," Snotnose reassured. "I'm sorry," Marina said. "Pandora isn't going, and that's that."

Snotnose stared at her long and hard, but Marina stood her ground. Finally the goblin turned and left, nose in the air.

As he was leaving he muttered, "Witches today. They just aren't so convincing anymore." He disappeared into the darkness.


	29. The Factory

Penniford and Saveanna flew into the Vampyrs cave. "Benjamin?" Saveanna called. "Yes?" I asked.

"We have a letter for you," Penniford replied. He handed me the letter. It read:

_Dear Benjamin,_

_I have not seen you in a while and I would like you to come over to my toy factory. It is just beside Pandora's house. See you soon._

_Sincerely,_

_Isaac Claus_

"That was a short letter," I said. "And I haven't seen Isaac in a while. OK, I'll go."

"Can we come?" Saveanna asked. "Sure," I said. Farley came in. "Where are you going?" I turned to face him. "I'm going to see Isaac."

"Altair just prepared dinner," Farley said. "It'll be rude for you to leave like that."

"Hey, you remember Dark, right?" I asked, leaning against the wall. "Yeah," Farley said. "He stole from me, the little rat. Twenty-five smackeroos. He said he would pay me back exactly this minute."

"Yeah, he told me that he decided to use those twenty-five dollars to have dinner at a diner and doesn't plan on paying you," I revealed, staring at my paws as if it were no big deal.

Farley went crashing out the cave, shouting "DARK! YOU CHEATING GAMBLER!"

Saveanna turned to face me. "I never knew you could pull off such a big lie," She said. "No, Dark actually did tell me that," I said. Penniford and Saveanna stared at me. Finally, Penniford said, "Well then, I guess Dark is in a lot of trouble."

"Let's go to Isaac's place already," I said. Penniford and Saveanna flew up in the air, but I stayed. "Why aren't you going?" Saveanna asked. "I don't know how to transform into a bat."

"What?"Penniford asked. "I've seen you as a bat before." I stared down at my feet. "That was because Farley was able to use his power to turn me into a bat. But he's not here."

"Snap your fingers," Saveanna instructed. I obeyed and a puff of smoke rose around me. When it disappeared, I was a raccoon. "Try it again," Saveanna said. Again a puff of smoke surrounded me. This time, I was turned into a possum.

"Hmm," Saveanna wondered. "It appears that vampires can turn into any nocturnal animal, not just bats."

I snapped my fingers one last time, and was transformed into an owl. "Well, at least it flies," I said and took off into the air.

It wasn't very long before we reached the Woz family house. Suddenly, some magic force grabbed us. "What's happening?" I asked as we were pulled to the ground in front of Rebecca, Ralph, and, of course, Pandora. I morphed back into vampire form.

"What are you doing here?" Rebecca asked. "We're going to see Isaac," I said. "Can I come?" Pandora asked.

"No," Rebecca said. "Because I am the oldest out of all of us, I should go." Ralph piped in. "I'm the smartest, so I should go."

"Well I'm the tallest…"

"I'm the fastest…"

Before anyone could say another word, I interrupted. "You can all go."

"OK," Rebecca said. "Also, did you see my mask I'm using for Halloween?" She took out a mask of a goblin with mouse ears. She put it on her face.

"I'm going to be a mouse-goblin," She said, taking it off her face. "Well I think it makes you look like a rat," I said impulsively. Rebecca grabbed me by the shirt and amazingly lifted me off the ground.

"Look, palsy, I am not a rat, you got that?" She yelled, shaking me back and forth. "Not, not, not, not, not!"

"OK, ok, ok!" I replied at the same time. "That's a good little vampire," She said, dropping me to the ground. I felt like I had drunken a bottle of water stained with knock-out gas while riding on a rollercoaster.

"Where is Isaac anyway?" Ralph asked. "Right next to you," Saveanna said, pointing to a large factory. "That was easy," Rebecca said.

. . .

Farley burst into the Monster Food diner. His eyes were burning red. All the guests, waiters, and the chef, who was a purple three-eyed mouse-sized squid, turned and stared at him.

"Farley, you know you're not allowed here after that temper tantrum a year ago," The chef said. "Forget that," Farley thundered. "Where's Dark?"

"Uh, Dark's not here," The chef lied. "Have any of you seen Dark?" The waiters and guests all piled lie upon lie.

"We haven't seen him…"

"Dark, where are you…"

"No Dark here…"

Farley was not fooled. He took a step towards the chef, and when he spoke again, it was with a low voice that made the chef's fur crawl.

"Then who…was eating…THE SQUIRREL!" Farley pointed a finger ata table with four empty chairs, and on the plate was the skeleton of a squirrel. It had been stripped clean, both the insides and the outsides, and its bottom stuck up in the air.

"Run!" The chef cried, and everyone jumped out of their seats and high-tailed it out of there. "AAAUUGGHH!" Farley yelled in rage and ran out the room.

. . .

I knocked on the door of the factory. The door opened and a snout poked out. It was Isaac. "Finally, you arrived," He said. "Come in."

We walked into a huge room. Do you want to know how huge it was? This is how huge it was. It was wide enough for two Diplodocus lying end-to-end. And it was high enough for two Brachiosaurus standing on each other and there would still be ten more feet left.

I noticed that there were many machines and toys. "What are those for?" I asked. "Oh, I'm making my own special toy army," I said. "I'm going to use them to fight the witches."

"I was having so much fun here I actually forgot all about that," I said. Tiny Lego versions of Isaac as an elf marched towards us in rows, like an army. Tiny guns were in their little Lego hands.

"Hey, those are kind of cute," Penniford said. One pointed its gun at him and fired. A red light shot out and struck Penniford's bottom. "Ouch!" He yelled and hopped up into the air.

"Those may be cute, but they're also dangerous," Isaac said. Ten mouse-sized snowmen stomped towards us and shot at us with snowballs. One struck Ralph and sent him flying into the wall. "Hey, I remember those snowmen," I said. "Those are the ones who attacked us last year when we tried to save Christmas."

"We reprogrammed them and made then more intelligent," I said. "They were just demonstrating the power of their snowballs."

"What more do you have here?" I asked. At that moment, a giant mouse came stomping out of the room. Its eyes shot red lasers that burnt whatever it hit and its hands zapped things with a blue light that vaporized anything it touched. Penniford and Saveanna ran around screaming and the Woz children went white in the face and were shouting "Oh gosh! This is not happening! Let's get the heck out of here."

"Hey, someone has to be controlling it from the inside for it to work," I said. As if on cue, we heard some sadistic laughing from inside the mouse. I recognized it.

"Dark?' I asked. The eyes of the toy giant opened up and Dark and all the other gremlins, including Punk Gremlin, came stampeding out.

"What are you doing in there?" I asked. "After we ate at the diner, we ran off and found Isaac making that giant mouse, so we couldn't resist," Dark explained. "We also came here to escape Farley's wrath."

Suddenly, a voice yelled, "DARK! YOU SNEAKY GOOD-FOR-NOTHING-SEWER RAT!"

"Oh no," Pointy said. "It's Farley." This time, it was the gremlins who went white in the face and were yelling, "Let's get out of here."

Just as Farley opened, or should I say head-butted, the door the gremlins ran out screaming blue murder and Farley chased after them yelling, "WHEN I CATCH YOU I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU!"

"Well those gremlins will think again before they steal from a mad vampire," Penniford. The same Lego Isaac from before shot at the floor in front of him.

"OK, ok, I'll go," He muttered and stomped out the door. "That's one grumpy toy," I said, rubbing the back of my head. 


	30. Buddy

Snotnose scurried up the stairs in the witch castle in a hurry. The sooner he got there, the sooner he would be able to leave.

He eventually reached the Grand High Witch's room. The witch was in a dark corner. She was obviously in her true hideous form, but was in the dark so Snotnose couldn't see her.

"Well?" The Grand High Witch said. "Where is Pandora? Have you brought her?"

Snotnose opened his mouth but then paused, and then said, "Blame that silly Santa Clause."

"What kind of silliness is this?" The Grand High Witch asked. "First you pause, and then tell me to blame Santa Clause. That's ridiculous rhyming."

"Well it was kind of fun," Snotnose replied, only to get grabbed by a bumpy hand and pulled closer towards the dark corner, but still couldn't see the witch's face.

"You simple-minded fool will go back and capture that Pandora or else I will have your skin for dinner," She snarled. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Grand High Witch," Snotnose said, and the Grand High Witch threw him away. As soon as he got to his feet, he ran off right out of the room and out of the castle.

. . .

A little elf flew into Mysterious Valley with a mini-sled. He looked like a tiny mouse and with white fur and brownish-orange hair. He wore all green. He landed and Creepella ran up to greet him. "Why hello there – "

The elf cut her off. "I don't have time for you," He said. "My name's Buddy, and my friend Isaac called me and wanted me to come over to Monster Valley."

With that, he hurried off to the forest. "How rude," Creepella said.

. . .

I knocked on Isaac's door. He opened it. "Yes?" He asked. "A little elf just came here and wants to speak with you," I said. As if on cue, Buddy scurried over to us.

"Buddy?" Isaac said in disbelief. "I thought you wouldn't come."

"I have nothing to do anyway, so I decided to come," Buddy said. "Well you see, a – "

"I don't have time for your speech," Buddy said. "I just need a room in your…your…"

"My factory and current home," Isaac said. "Yeah, that," Buddy said.

"Uh, I'm going to see Mizoram," I said. "Who?" Isaac asked. "A snow girl that just moved here."

"Your friends with her?" Isaac asked. "Not at the moment," I said. "But Tasha, Carmen and Pandora said we could try to be."

"Sure, you go and do that," Buddy said. I ran off. "I'm going after him," Isaac said. "Why?" Buddy asked. "Maybe Mizoram's friendly," He replied. "You don't have to come." Isaac ran off after me. "Why do I always fall for that 'You don't have to come' thing?" Buddy said and reluctantly followed Isaac and me.

. . .

Dark crouched down and was stuffing himself on a dead squirrel. Bratfur stood beside him, whistling to himself and secretly hungry from watching Dark gorge himself. He turned around and saw Tasha, Carmen, and, of course, Pandora come. The Yokai and gremlin had happened to be standing right beside Mizoram's house.

"Uh, Dark," He said, tapping the gremlin on the back. The gremlin spun around, eyes ablaze, furious of being interrupted in the middle of his gorging. He snapped at Bratfur's finger, but Bratfur was just able to pull his finger away just in time.

"What are you tapping me on the back for?" Dark asked. Bratfur pointed to Tasha, Carmen, and Pandora. Dark kicked what remained of the squirrel into a bush.

"Well, what are you doing here?" Dark asked in a sweet tone. "We came to see Mizoram," Tasha said. "She's right there."

Carmen knocked on the door to the house. For a few moments, no one answered. Finally, the door opened and Mizoram's snout stuck out the door.

It was at that moment that me, Isaac, and Buddy came along. "I don't see anyone," Isaac said. Then he turned around and his eyes widened as he stared at the girl at the door. I swore I saw hearts form in place of his pupils.

"What's the matter with Isaac?" Buddy asked as Isaac jumped up upon a giant rock twice as big as Geronimo to get a better look at Mizoram. He sat motionless, and did nothing as he slid off the edge of the rock and plopped to the ground, a huge opened-mouthed grin on his face.

"He's crazy," Buddy said. Isaac scooped up a pair of roses and, ignoring the pain of the thorns that pricked his paws, scampered off to Mizoram. "What is he doing?" Buddy asked and ran off after him.

Isaac pushed his way towards Mizoram and presented her with the roses. Mizoram stared at the roses for a moment and then smiled.

Buddy came and started to pull Isaac away, but Isaac didn't budge and Buddy let go by accident and Isaac swung towards Mizoram and accidently kissed her. Somehow, that put both of them in a trance and they sat down holding hands and not taking their eyes off each other.

At that moment, Bratfur shouted, "Oh no, I'm late for my job!" I turned to him in confusion. "What job?" I asked. "I got into being a worker for some business man named Henry and work started three minutes ago."

"So?" I asked. "Henry wants us to be there three minutes _before _work starts," Bratfur said. He ran off. "Do you think he will be fired?" Dark asked. "We'll have to find out," I replied and with that, I, Dark, and Buddy ran off after Bratfur.

Bratfur had run so fast he had already reached Henry's workplace. "Stop right there," A voice said. Trembling, Bratfur turned around and found himself snout-to-snout with Henry the werewolf. It was William's father that Petunia had spoken to two days ago. Standing behind him was Snotnose. He was no longer dressed in rags, but was instead dressed in the most expensive clothes and a long hat.

"Well, well, well," Henry said. "What do we have here, Mr. Snotnose."

"Appears to be one of our workers," Snotnose replied, munching on some cheese. "But he's late."

"Well we can't have that in our business, can we?" Henry said, poking Bratfur with his cane. "No, that would set a bad example," Snotnose sneered. "Let me explain," Bratfur said. "We don't want excuses, boy, we want results," Henry said. Just then, I, Buddy, and Dark came and hid behind a corner. "This doesn't look good," Buddy said.

"Don't fire him," Geronimo said, emerging as if from nowhere. "And you are?" Henry asked. 'I am Stilton, Geronimo Stilton," Geronimo said. "Well, Mr. Stilton, why should we let this dimple head keep his job?" Henry asked, bonking Bratfur on the head with his cane.

"He's afraid of you," Geronimo said. "I'll make sure he knows you call the shots around here." Henry stared at him for a moment, and said, "I'll see that you do." With that, he turned and walked away. I gave a sigh of relief.

"Have you gone soft, Henry?" Snotnose asked. "Why did you let the boy keep his job?"

"Because the wizard was right," Henry said. "Fear is a powerful motivator. That boy will now be the very picture of punctuality."

"He may be, but what about that wizard butting in like that?" Snotnose asked. "Who is he to tell what is right or wrong? What is he, some sort of spokesman of the monsters?" He and Henry laughed. "That spineless old fool," Henry said once he stopped laughing. "He could barely look us in the eye."

Snotnose quickly became serious. "He may be spineless, but he got what he wanted out of you, and that makes him a troublemaker."

There was a long pause, and Henry finally said, "Very well. We will keep an eye on this Mr. Stilton." 


	31. King Ghidorah Attacks

Altair ate the body of a dead mouse (Altair hadn't killed him, he had died of old age) while I stood behind him, waiting for him to get off so I could have my turn.

It felt like hours, even though it had only been five minutes. Boy, that body had a lot of blood in it. Altair didn't even look like he was coming close to finishing. I began to worry that he was going to drink the entire thing.

"Uh, Altair," I said, tapping him on the shoulder. Altair kept on drinking as if he didn't even know I was there. I tapped him again. "Altair," I said through gritted teeth.

Altair still acted as if he didn't notice me. I couldn't take it anymore. "ALTAIR!"

Altair paused and lifted his ears, and turned to face me. "Yes, Benjamin," He asked. "Why weren't you answering me?" I asked. "Uh, I was thinking of something and I didn't notice you were talking to me," Altair answered.

"What were you thinking about?" I asked. "None of your business," Altair said harshly. "But if you want a drink, feel free to. I'm full."

"Sure," I said, and pounced on the body, draining it of blood. It tasted wonderful, but I didn't care about the taste. There was something about the way Altair said he was thinking of something. Also, what could Altair of been thinking of that he didn't even notice I was tapping him and talking to him.

. . .

Isaac walked around the school hall like an idiot, a huge smile on his face. I could tell what he was thinking of. He was still thinking about that lucky kiss with you-know-who.

"Isaac, you've been like that all day," I said. "It was one kiss." "And yet, I knew she was the one," Isaac replied, not even looking at me. "You should be talking about that when you're a teenager, not when you're not even ten years old."

"Yeah," Isaac said, shaking his head. "I should be talking about that when I'm like, fifteen."

"HELP ME!" Bratfur yelled, running towards us. "What is it?" I asked. "This zombie named Bob," Bratfur said, panting. "He's after me."

No sooner had he spoken, we heard a groaning sound and saw a zombie mouselet arrive. He was green, had black flat hair, and he wore a striped yellow shirt and blue shorts.

"He's found me," Bratfur squeaked and took off running, with Bob limping after him. "Should we help him?" I asked. We both stared at each other, and then both of us said "Nah."

. . .

"Wait ago," Bratfur mumbled sarcastically as we played basketball. "The school supervisors gave me a ticket for running." I passed the ball to him. "If you're a Yokai why didn't you transform into something to scare Bob off?"

"I never thought of that," Bratfur said, throwing the ball to Isaac. As you might've guessed, Isaac was still thinking about that kiss and wasn't even paying attention. So he got another kiss, all right. A kiss from the basketball planted in his face.

All of us, which consisted of me, Bratfur, the gremlin trio, Steven, and even Isaac, burst out laughing. We laughed so hard we didn't even notice a dark shadow from within a giant cave.

The shadow got bigger, and bigger, and soon it was so big it covered all of us in darkness. We stopped laughing. Trembling, we turned around and stared up into the eyes of a monster.

It was Ghidorah. No, not Bratfur disguised as Ghidorah like when he battled the Cyclops. This was the _real _Ghidorah. He had no arms and three snake-like heads, and his eyes burned like a forest fire. His teeth were so sharp they bite you and rip off half your body in one second. And he was staring down at us.

"Whoa," Was all I could say. "Didn't expect to see the famous arch nemesis of Godzilla in Monster Island."

King Ghidorah roared and I could see fire burn inside his mouth. He gritted his teeth and stared down at us, before opening his mouth and the fire came raging down towards us. We all took off running.

"Do something!" I yelled at Bratfur. "Transform into some giant monster and save us."

"Yeah," Pointy said. "Save us or else King Ghidorah will kill us to death." Bratfur stopped. "OK, I'll turn into…uh…" King Ghidorah sent another blast of fire that enveloped Bratfur. When the smoke cleared, Bratfur was covered in soot. "On second thought, I'll just run," He said, and ran screaming his head off.

King Ghidorah spread out his humongous wings and flapped them. Immediately, he was in the air, flying towards us. Fire was sent flying down towards us every ten seconds.

Before long, we started tiring. "Do you think Ghidorah has stopped chasing us?" I asked. We turned around. King Ghidorah was nowhere near tiring. He had learned that we were getting tired, and that meant that he just needed to put up with this for a little longer and then he would have his meal.

Steven collapsed. "Steven, get up!" I yelled. Steven stayed on the ground, too tired to move. I ran and grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him away, but it was too late. Before I could yell, "Burning cheddar balls!" a blast of fire was sent flying towards us, and it hit the ground just a few inches away. It sent us flying and we crashed into the others and were knocked to the ground.

We staggered to get up, but King Ghidorah sent another blast of fire. We were lucky a bolt of lightning temporarily blinded the dragon and the fire blast missed us, but it sent us flying again. This time, we flew over a cliff.

"AAAUUUGGGGHHH!" We yelled as we crashed into the water below. King Ghidorah looked down at us and knowing that his meal was gone, he turned and flew away.

I was a vampire and because water takes away our power I started to drift off. My eyes started closing, and I started to sink, but Punk Gremlin grabbed my arm and pulled me up so I didn't drown.

Steven was starting to swallow water, and was coughing a lot, and just when it looked like we were all goners, we saw what we were headed for: a waterfall.

"OH NNNOOOOOO!" I yelled as we fell down the waterfall and plummeted into the water below. The blow knocked us all out and we floated away.

. . .

About one hour later, we woke up. I got up and looked around. I was in a huge cave. We must've fallen through a hole and wound up here.

I was about to jump for joy at our narrow escape, only to realize that I was all alone. "Where are the others?" I asked myself. I looked around, but they were nowhere in sight. I sighed as I realized I was lost and alone.


	32. Teufelchen

Geronimo whistled and walked over to the garage to get a shovel and help him plant some roses. He took a shovel and walked over to a spot to start digging.

He shoved the shovel into the dirt. All of a sudden, he heard a loud clang. He pulled the shovel out and saw that it had a huge dent in it. "What the…?" He paused and looked down at the dirt. He saw shiny metal buried deep under. "What is this?" He asked.

Geronimo crouched down and began digging with his paws, clearing away more dirt and uncovering more metal. It wasn't long before he had uncovered ten feet of metal. Suddenly, the ground broke away underneath him, and he fell through.

Geronimo crashed snout-first onto some shiny, hard steel. He got up and looked around. He was in a room full of computers and machines. He looked up and saw that he had fell through a circular sliding door.

"Ah, I expected to meet you here, old friend," A voice said. "Hey, I remember that voice," Geronimo said. "Professor von Volt?"

. . .

"Ow," Bratfur moaned. "My head." He and Steven got up, rubbing their sour heads and groaning. "Hey, where are the others?" Steven asked.

"We must've gotten separated when we landed here," Bratfur said. "Or…" Steven's eyes widened and he stared at Bratfur before saying, "Don't even think of that."

"OK, so we just have to hope that they are still out there," Bratfur replied. "Living, breathing, death-eating cannibals who are so sick of their own lack of a soul that they spend the time destroying life whenever they can."

"What the heck?" Steven asked. "Living, breathing, scream-eating cannibals? Where did you get that idea?"

"I have no idea?" Bratfur said. He then changed the subject. "How about we just call out to them and hope they hear us." With that, he yelled at the top of his lungs. "BENJAMIN! ISAAC! PUNK GREMLIN!"

"Don't yell," Steven whispered. "You don't know what lives down here. They could be violent." Bratfur stopped yelling and said, "What could be living down here?"

As if as an answer, several strange creatures crawled out from several hiding spots. They looked a lot like gremlins, but were blue. They had yellow eyes with slits. Their teeth were sharp like daggers, and their ears were like a bat.

"Hey, those are the legendary Teufelchen, French for 'little devil'," Steven said. "That doesn't sound like a very nice creature," Bratfur said. The Teufelchen drooled as they stared at the Yokai and Gaborchend. "They don't look nice either," Bratfur added.

"Hey, I have an idea of what we could do," Steven said. "What?" Bratfur asked. "RUN!" Steven answered, and with that the two left the Teufelchen in the dust. But the creatures weren't about to give up so easily, and they ran after Bratfur and Steven.

. . .

Isaac limped around as he searched for somebody he knew. So far, he had found no one. He had been walking for a long time and was so tired that he didn't even notice a rock in his path. His foot struck the rock and he was sent flying off a cliff.

He was so tired he didn't even scream. I had happened to be walking around at the bottom of the cliff and happened to look up to see a bent figure fall down towards me. Before I could scream, we collided and crashed to the ground.

I got up and stared at the elf that fell on me. "Isaac?" I asked. "Benjamin?" Isaac gasped. We stared at each other in shock, and then we laughed with joy. "I thought I'd never see you again," I said.

"Me neither," Isaac replied. However, our reunion was cut short as Bratfur and Steven came running. The Gremlin trio was not far behind them. "What are they running from?" I asked, and I soon got my answer as dozens of Teufelchen came. As soon as we laid our eyes on them, we took off running as well.

"What are those?" I asked Steven. "Teufelchen," He answered. "They aren't very nice." I looked back at the beasts, and said, "I can see that."

Suddenly, three Teufelchen jumped in front of us and knocked us to the ground. The creatures pounced on us, beating us. Then they parted and the biggest Teufelchen came up to us. He was the leader.

He opened up his mouth and I saw huge, sharp teeth come down at me. Bratfur acted fast and punched a Teufelchen, distracting the leader. I took the opportunity to punch the leader in the jaw, knocking him over.

Then we all got up and dove down a hole, with the Teufelchen screeching in rage at having lost their meal. But the leader hissed at them, talking in their own language, and they all split up to search for us.

**Well, that's the end of the chapter. And just so you know, the Teufelchen are totally made up by me, although the name does mean "little devil."**


	33. Danger Underground

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" Snotnose's laughter could be heard from miles around. It wasn't long before the Grand High Witch came in. She was in the form I had encountered her with.

"What is this entire ruckus?" She demanded. "Ah, I was hoping you would come," Snotnose said with glee. "Get on with it," The Grand High Witch hissed.

"You know Pandora's friends, right?" Snotnose asked. "Yes, I know them," The Grand High Witch barked. "I saw one in a tree-house before they came here."

"Well, they would be trouble, right?" Snotnose said, becoming more excited. "Yes, they would probably try to save that Pandora Woz," The Grand High Witch replied. "Well, I got rid of them," Snotnose said proudly.

"What?" The Grand High Witch asked. "The Ghidorah," Snotnose said, "I unleashed him on those puny mouselets and drove them into a current. Now, they are underground, and will be vanquished by the vicious Teufelchen."

"Was Pandora with them?" The Grand High Witch asked. "No, she is safely at home," Snotnose answered.

"Perfect," The Grand High Witch said. "With Pandora's idiotic friends out of the way, catching her will be all too easy."

. . .

I groaned in pain. I was lying under a pile of unconscious gremlins. Isaac, Steven, and Bratfur were lying not too far away.

"Steve," I choked out. Steven lied unmoving. "Steve." Steven didn't hear me. I knocked the four gremlins off of me. They flew through the air and landed on Isaac, Steven, and Bratfur. All of them woke up. "What was that for?" Bratfur asked. "You needed to wake up before the Teufelchen come," I said. As if on cue, we heard the snarl of a Teufelchen and darted away.

"If jumping down that hole didn't save us from those creatures then why did we jump down it anyway?" Bratfur asked. "Would you rather be up there, facing the Teufelchen leader?" I asked. That shut Bratfur up.

"Besides, it's not like we can't defend ourselves,' Isaac said. "Steven can head-butt with his horns, Ben can bite, Bratfur can shape-shift into whatever he likes, and the gremlins could easily create an army with water."

"Wait, if the gremlin trio multiplies with water, then why didn't they spawn any gremlins when we fell into that current?" I asked.

As if on cue, a horde of gremlins came. There must've been at least 50 of them. There were tall ones, short ones, fat one, skinny ones, you name it.

"Sorry for the delay, boss," One said. "We had to fight off a battalion of these strange creatures that look like us yet for some reason, hate us."

"You're telling me," I said. "One bit my ear and stretched it." I rubbed my ear, the one that the Teufelchen bit.

Suddenly, a gremlin came bursting out of a hole shouting, "The Teufelchen have found us!" and the Teufelchen came pouring out of the holes.

The gremlins fought bravely, but in the ensuing chaos I tripped and fell off a cliff. I reached out to grab the nearest thing, and that was Isaac's ear. We both fell down into, you guessed it, an underground river. What bad luck. I spluttered and coughed but I felt myself drifting away. Then my eyes opened and I saw we were headed for a waterfall.

"Not again," I managed to say before Isaac and I fell down, screaming. "NOO!" Steven yelled before he was mobbed by the Teufelchen and gremlins.

Isaac and I crashed down into the water below and washed up upon shore. "I can't believe it," I said. "We just found our friends, and now we've been separated again."

"Can you fly up?" Isaac asked. "The water has drained me off my powers; we're on our own," I answered.

It was then that I heard a hiss, and I saw the shadow of a Teufelchen appear coming out from a big tunnel. "Hide," I whispered, and the two of us dove behind a giant rock. In fact, there were dozens of giant rocks everywhere.

Sure enough, a Teufelchen appeared. It was very big, almost as big as the leader Teufelchen, and a smaller Teufelchen came behind him. They looked identical except the big one had a pale Mohawk on his head.

They both looked around. They didn't see us behind the rocks. Then I heard footsteps, and I peeked up from the rock to see the big Teufelchen wandering towards the rocks, stopping every five seconds to sniff around, hoping to catch my scent.

When it was clear the Teufelchen was almost by the rock, I took an awful chance and crawled right past the Teufelchen over to the next rock. Isaac followed. Luckily, the Teufelchen didn't see us.

We started crawling forwards, with the Teufelchen going the opposite way. Then, unfortunately, Isaac bumped his head on a big rock and a chunk of it flew to the big Teufelchen's feet. Both Teufelchen jumped up, alert. The big Teufelchen crouched down and sniffed the rock. He seemed to catch Isaac's scent on it because he came towards Isaac, sniffing his way towards him. The smaller Teufelchen jumped up on top of the biggest rock in order to get a better view.

It was then that I bumped into some crystal wall so clear I could see my reflection in it. However, the Teufelchen also saw it, and I saw the reflection of the big Teufelchen charging towards me. Then he pounced, and I jumped away and the Teufelchen crashed into the crystal wall and was knocked out cold.

Isaac jumped up at the scene, and the smaller Teufelchen came running at him. I grabbed a rock and swung it, and it collided with the Teufelchen's face. The blow knocked the Teufelchen right off his feet, and he did a somersault in the air and landed on his face. "Eww," Isaac and I said simultaneously.

We dove into a tunnel. It was then we bumped into the gremlin trio. "What a day," I said to them. No sooner had I said this I was lifted off the ground as a Teufelchen's head came bursting out under me. Isaac gave it two kicks right in the face, and she fell back down, nearly taking me with it. The gremlin trio pulled me up, and I was lucky as the Teufelchen snapped at me with her teeth just as they pulled me up.

We took off running. We eventually found ourselves at the edge of a short cliff. It was an 18 foot drop, and we weren't about to risk breaking a leg or two. We looked up and found that there were some jagged, stalactites on the roof of the underground. The jagged ends could be used to swing from. However, we were hesitant. If we slipped and fell, that would be the end of us. But we heard a hiss and turned around. It was that same big Teufelchen I saw before, and it charged.

Without a moment's delay, we jumped and grabbed onto the stalactites. The Teufelchen pounced and it caught onto Isaac's leg. Isaac squeaked and let go of thestalactite, and he and the Teufelchen fell down. Luckily, the Teufelchen broke Isaac's fall.

Then the stalactite I was holding onto broke, and I fell down. The gremlin trio, who had been hanging from the same stalactite, fell too when the stalactite broke off.

It was then that Bratfur and Steven came by and was crushed by Isaac and I. The gremlin trio wasn't so lucky; they landed on a heap on the ground. I was the first to get up, and I saw the Teufelchen that had attacked me a moment ago staring at me, her teeth bared.

Then Isaac turned and saw the leader Teufelchen growling and charging at us. And the big Teufelchen got up as well. We were surrounded. Just as the Teufelchen were about to attack, we heard a huge booming noise, and the Teufelchen ran off.

Two giant feet stomped towards me, and stopped in front of me. Everyone trembled and looked up. Then we saw his face. We were staring into the face of a giant.


	34. The BFM

We trembled as we stared up at the giant. He had grey fur and he was nearly bald. He had a pointy nose and he wore torn up jeans and a brown vest. He was very bony and his eyes were tiny black dots. But what fascinated me was his size. He was 24 feet tall, and his head nearly touched the roof of the underground cave.

He bent down and stared at us intently. Our response was to scream, "AAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHH!" and take off running. Well, a few of us were actually running. The gremlin trio was limping away and Steven and Bratfur were unconscious from us falling on them. However, we were so scared of this giant that we couldn't care less.

I ran. Oh, how I ran. I ran like I was in a marathon and the finish line was just in front of me. I was in the lead and no one had a chance of catching up with me. I pumped my arms in front of me and I took amazing strides. I jumped in the air with one leg in front of me and the other behind. I landed on the ground and jumped again.

That finish line was right in front of me now, and I wasn't about to stop. No, sir, I was not stopping. However, I turned around to see if the giant was after us. I got the surprise of my life. He was just standing there, staring at us as we ran. "What?" I asked myself. I was so confused I didn't even see the small rock in front of me.

The rock struck my leg as my foot raised in the air for another leap. I squeaked in pain. The blow caused me to slow down a bit, but it was enough time for the others to catch up with me. They were so busy running they didn't even notice I was in front of them, and they rammed into me like crazed rhinos.

We flew through the air in a ball and crashed into a wall made of dirt and stone. Dirt was sent flying, and our limp bodies flew even higher into the air and we ended up falling off a, you guessed it, cliff. Man, there were a lot of cliffs underground.

This cliff didn't have water at the bottom and hard ground was below us. Proving that he was a dirty lowlife, Dark grabbed me and used me to cushion his fall. Everyone else crashed to the ground in separate spots. Isaac bounced three times before landing on his stomach. Pointy dove head-first into the ground and his ears were so sharp they got lodged in the ground and stayed there, no matter how much he pulled.

Just as we were recovering, we heard a snarl. I turned around and was face-to-face with you-know-who. The Teufelchen leader and his cohorts.

. . .

William sat on the top of the slide, refusing to slide down. He was reading a book, and a large number of other children were there, waiting impatiently for the werewolf to slide down. Among those waiting were Rebecca, Ralph and Pandora.

Eventually, Rebecca got so exasperated waiting in line she pushed her way through the huge line to find William sitting on the top of the slide.

"Hey, hairy, are you going to move?" Rebecca asked. "No," William replied. "When are you going to leave?"

"Just who do you think you are," Rebecca asked. "I'm sitting here, reading, and you're bothering me," William replied. "There's a bench over there to read," Rebecca shot back. "Now go. You're hogging the slide."

"What if I don't want to go?" William asked. "Then I'll make you," Rebecca answered. William looked up from his book. "And just how are you going to do that, rat-face?" At the mention of the word 'rat', Rebecca kicked William and he flew down the slide and face-first into the sand. Everyone cheered. William got up, and yelled, "This isn't over!" before stomping off.

. . .

I kicked the Teufelchen leader in the face and jumped up. The Teufelchen fell to the ground and screeched at the other Teufelchen, ordering them to attack. They charged, but I was faster. I dodged their attacks and threw dirt in their eyes. Suddenly, more Teufelchen appeared and surrounded us.

The Teufelchen leader laughed and moved in. Suddenly, a shadow loomed over us. It was that same giant. The Teufelchen ran off again, leaving us with the giant.

We trembled as he bent down. "Don't worry, little ones," He said kindly. "I'm not evil. I'm friendly." We stopped trembling. "Where are Bratfur and Steven?" Isaac asked. "Don't worry about them," The giant said. "They're fine."

"What's your name?" I asked the giant. "My name?" The giant asked. "Why, I'm the BFM. Short for 'Big Friendly Mouse'."

**Well, that's the end of the chapter. And yes, the BFM is a parody of Roald Dahl's book, The BFG, short for Big Friendly Giant.**


	35. Rescue

Tasha tapped Jessie on the shoulder. "Jessie, have you noticed that Ben and the others are away?"

"No," Jessie replied. "The last I saw them, they were going to play basketball. Maybe they're at home." Tasha shook her head. "I asked Geronimo. He said he hasn't seen Benjamin or the others."

"Do you think something bad happened to them?" Jessie asked. "I guess so," Tasha answered. "They've been gone for nearly a day."

"Maybe we should go look for them," Jessie said. "Look for whom?" Asked Rebecca, who had been watching the whole thing from a tree. Ralph and Rudy were there too. "Benjamin's missing," Jessie said. "If you're looking for them, we're coming too," Ralph said. "Fine," Tasha said.

"Where should we start looking?" Rudy asked. "I know where they went to play basketball," Jessie said. "We should look there."

"OK," Everyone said. They scampered off, unaware that two figures watched them from the tree. "No doubt they'll get in trouble," Victor said. "We should follow them," Farley replied. With that, the two vampires leaped from tree-to-tree after the others.

. . .

"So, you have small chairs in case you have visitors?" I asked the BFM. The others and I were sitting in a mouse-sized chair at a mouse-sized table while the giant sat that a humongous table in a humongous chair.

"Yes I do," He said. "What would you like to eat?" I thought for a moment, but Bratfur instantly said, "Something to drink. I'm thirsty."

"I have the tastiest of drinks," The BFM said. He got out of that enormous chair and walked over to his giant fridge. His walking made us jump in the air. He opened the fridge door and pulled out a purple, bubbling drink.

"Here is what I call frat," He said. "It is the most delicious, scrumptious, mouth-drooling drink ever." He stared at it proudly.

"If it is that tasty, I will be glad to have some," Bratfur Said. "Me too," Steven said. "Me three," Isaac added. Everyone but me said they wanted some. The BFM took out some tiny glasses. Because the bottle was so big, he only needed to put one drop into eat one. Then he handed it to all of us. "Are you sure you don't want some?" The BFM asked. "Yes," I answered.

Everyone drank down all of their glasses. "This is fantastic," Dark said. "Have some more," The BFM said. "All right," Dark said. They all had some more frat. All of a sudden, Isaac clutched his stomach. "I don't feel too good," He said.

"Me neither," Beaver said. "I need to go to another room," Bratfur said. 'I think something's going to pop inside me." With that, everyone but The BFM and I ran off into the restroom. "Mr. Giant," I said. "Was there a side-affect with that drink?"

"Why yes, but we giants are immune to it," The BFM said. "You see, frat is an anagram of – "

"Fart," I interrupted. "Yes," The BFM said. It was then that we heard a loud noise from inside the restrooms, followed by an awful smell. "We should probably tell them," I said. "Yes, we should," The BFM replied.

. . .

"Well, we're here," Jessie said. "Where are they?"

"Hey, look," Rebecca said. "Paw prints." Sure enough, there was a set of paw prints leading to the cliff, as well as some burnt ground left by King Ghidorah.

"They probably fell from the cliff," Jessie said. "If that happened, they're as good as dead," Ralph said. "Oh, no they're not," Jessie said. "Come on."

"Come where," Tasha asked. "To the cliff. We'll probably land in the same place they did." Ralph snorted. "Or we die like they did."

"If we die, we die," Tasha said, and with that, she jumped right off the edge of the cliff. Everyone else jumped off with her, except Ralph, who had to be pulled off the cliff by Rebecca.

Ah, man," Farley said. "Vampires can't touch water."

"We'll have to climb down the cliff walls," Victor replied.

. . .

The Teufelchen slept on the ground, their ears turning every so often to detect enemies. A scream woke them all up, including the leader. The Woz children, Jessie, Rudy, and Tasha fell through a hole and crashed right into the center Teufelchen.

Rebecca was the first to get up. She looked around at the blue monsters circling them. The others soon got up as well. The Teufelchen leader half-growled, half-laughed. It was an odd sound. "I think we're in trouble," Rebecca said.

The Teufelchen leader growled at two other Teufelchen, and they stomped towards the children. Before they could strike, Victor and Farley slid down the same hole and landed on them. The Teufelchen leader jumped into the air, yelping in surprise. The kids all ran and the Teufelchen chased them.

The kids ran so fast that the Teufelchen weren't even close to catching any of them, so they gave up and walked away. The kids stopped. "That was a close one," Jessie said. No sooner had those words left her lips that a deafening roar filled their ears. A snake-like monster appeared from a cave.

"No," Jessie said. "It can't be. It can't be the dreaded Quetzalcoatl." But it was indeed. The reptilian monster hissed at the children and slithered towards them. The kids screamed blue murder and took off running.

Ralph turned around, still running, to find that the Quetzalcoatl was gaining up on them. "Look out!" Rebecca yelled, and Ralph turned around just to avoid being hit by a huge root. The Quetzalcoatl smashed through the root with his head.

The monster rammed into Victor, but this did little to injure him. He just shook his head and ran even faster. The Quetzalcoatl finally stopped, and, with one more hiss, slithered off in the opposite direction. The kids stopped once more. "We did it," Jessie said, shocked. "We actually escaped."

Then a huge door opened in front of them, and a giant mouse stomped out and looked down. "Hi," He said. "Who are you," Rudy asked. "I am The BFM," The BFM replied.

. . .

All the little children were running off to school. School wasn't starting in a long time, so the kids had plenty of time to play. William and his friends were resting on a tree, scanning the area for a certain vampire.

"Where is Benjamin?" William asked. "He should be here." Glut turned to him. "I don't think he's coming, Will." William grumbled. "Then who am I going to beat up on?" Dag searched the area until his eyes rested on a little kid. "I think I know who," He said, pointing to Pandora. William and Glut turned to Pandora and snickered.

. . .

"So, you came to rescue us?" I asked. "Yes," Jessie said. "Thank goodness," Bratfur said. "At this time, we're almost late for school. Victor gasped. "What is it Victor?" I asked.

"William," He said. "He often beats up kids one week before Halloween." My eyes widened. "But today is one week before Hallo…"

I turned to The BFM. "We need to leave," He said. "Now?" The BFM asked. "Yes," I said. "There's the door," The BFM said, pointing to a small mouse-sized door. "Thank you," I said and we rushed out.


	36. Fight at Monster School

"How much farther until we're at school?" Ralph asked. "We'll know when we get there," I said. "Right now, we have to stop William from beating up someone."

"I'm getting tired," Rudy said. "Just be quiet," Jessie said. "We're almost there." I halted everyone. The school was just barely in sight. I could also see three figures moving towards one. I knew who the three figures were, but I had no idea who the figure they were confronting was.

"I see them," I said. "I see William and his friends. They're walking to some other kid." We all stood there to get a better look. "Wait, what are we sitting here waiting for?" Victor asked. "I've been to all of William's school's before and seen him beat up others and I am not going to stand and watch it happen again. Let's go." With that, we ran towards school as fast as we could.

. . .

"Hey kid," William said to Pandora. Pandora stood up and stared at the three bullies. "Yes," She replied. "I'll give you ten seconds to run and if you don't, you'll be really, really sorry," William threatened.

Pandora was not afraid of the three bullies. She stood her ground. "One," William said. Pandora stood there. "Two," William continued. Pandora didn't run. William was clearly getting annoyed. Why wasn't she running? William wasn't used to this.

He paused for just one moment and then skipped all the way to ten. "Ten!" He yelled, and the three ran towards her. All of a sudden, Glut was knocked down. William and Dag spun around.

You see, William's temporary pause had allowed me and the others to reach school. Jessie had pushed Glut down. Then Victor jumped on William. All of the kids turned and watched the scene in awe.

Victor clearly had the upper hand, and had pinned William to the ground. "Dag, help me," William said, and Dag ran over to Victor. Suddenly, Rebecca and Ralph tripped him, using the same trick they had used on Bugsy, and he fell. Before he could get up, Rebecca and Ralph pinned him.

Victor had been distracted by Dag rushing at him, and this allowed William to free himself and push Victor away. I was about to confront William myself when a recovered Glut pushed me from behind. I fell and Glut was soon on top of me. We rolled around on the ground and when I was on top of Glut, I turned to Steven. "Get the teacher."

"Which teacher?" Steven asked. Glut knocked me down and was on top of me again. "Any teacher," I said before my mouth was covered by Glut. Steven panicked and ran, bumping into Rupert, knocking them both down. Rupert got up first. "Get up," He said, and they both pushed pass the dozens of children to get into the school.

Rudy and Jessie pulled Glut off me, and I turned my attention to William, who was on top of Victor while Farley tried to pull him off. I ran and knocked William over. Before he could recover, I jumped on him. Glut rushed over to me and knocked me off, and the two began to hit me when Tasha pushed Glut away. Unfortunately, he was pushed into Rebecca and Ralph, knocking them off Dag.

Dag tried to stop Dark, who was attempting to push William away from me, but Punk Gremlin grabbed him, and the rest of the trio soon pinned him down. Dark was pushed away by William, but this allowed me to knock him down.

At the same time, Steven and Ralph had run into the nearest classroom, which was occupied by the vampire teacher Mrs. Campbell. She spun around and saw them. "Children, you are not supposed to be here," She said. "Mrs. Campbell, it's important," Rupert said. Mrs. Campbell was confused, and Steven pointed to the window. Mrs. Campbell turned and saw the fight outside. Giving a shriek, she fainted. Steven and Rupert looked down at the body and shuffled out of the room.

William and I were rolling around on the ground. Rebecca, Ralph and Tasha had Glut pinned while Dag was pinned by the gremlin trio. Victor had a hurt leg from getting pounded by William and couldn't get up, and Farley was trying desperately to help him.

Jessie and Rudy ran over to help me, but Glut was able to trip them, and they fell down. William finally pinned me to the ground. "What're you going to do now, Stilton?" He taunted. Bugsy had been watching the whole thing, mesmerised by the whole crazy affair, and when she saw me pinned to the ground, she recovered from shock and reacted. She pushed William off me.

She then helped me up and we both charged at William, knocking him to the ground and pinning him, waiting for Steven and Rupert to return with a teacher.

Steven and Rupert had finally found Miss Honey, and told them of the whole thing. Not surprisingly, she was a little doubtful until she looked out the window, gave a shriek, and rushed out the door.

William had been struggling and had eventually squirmed free, knocking us down. He was catching his breath when he was grabbed by the collar by Miss Honey. Steven and Rupert stood by her side, proud at having helped. "Get into school, young man," Miss Honey said, and she dragged the bully into school. My friends lifted Dag and Glut up and walked them into school as well, looking as if they were police who had caught two criminals. I, meanwhile, sat down and rubbed me bruised arm.

. . .

"What do you mean Benjamin has had a detention?" Geronimo asked on the phone. He had received a phone-call from the principal, an eight-legged creature with four eyes, about the fight. Thea, Trap, and Petunia were at the door, listening to the conversation.

"My Benjamin would never get into a fight," Geronimo said defiantly. Thea, Trap, and Petunia's eyes widened when they heard the word 'fight.' "I'll be right over," Geronimo said. He put down the phone and walked out the door, followed by Thea, Trap, and Petunia.

. . .

I was, indeed, in detention. Everyone involved in the fight was in detention, minus William, who had been taken away by Miss Honey to have a talk. The principal, Mr. Arturo, sat in his huge desk facing us. We had remained quiet for a long time until Mr. Arturo finally asked, "So exactly what happened?"

We were about to start talking when Geronimo entered. "Benjamin, what happened?" He yelled when he saw my bruised arm. To be honest, everyone involved in the fight had been hurt in some way. Jessie, Rudy, and Victor all had sprained ankles; Bugsy was a little shaken up from getting pushed, Rebecca and Ralph were dirty from getting pushed; Dag had nearly been crushed with the weight of the gremlins on him, Glut had hurt his head from getting knocked down by Jessie, Tasha had been hit by Glut while trying to pin him, and Steven and Rupert had sore knees from colliding. The only one who hadn't gotten hurt was Farley and the gremlins, except Dark who had been pushed by William.

"It's nothing," I said. "Well how did you get it?" Geronimo asked. "I know you didn't get into a fight." However, when he saw the guilty look on my face, he realized it was true. Geronimo asked the same question Mr. Arturo asked. "Well..." I didn't know how to explain it, so Victor did. "Some bullies tried to beat up Pandora, but Benjamin stopped them."

Geronimo was confused, and then proud. "My nephew actually saved someone," He cheered. "Yeah, but with some injuries too," I said, still rubbing my arm. "Don't worry, the nurse will fix up that arm in no time," Mr. Arturo said. "You know, I wonder what happened with William," Tasha said.

. . .

"Let go of me," William said to Miss Honey. They were in the basement. Yes, Monster School had a basement. "You, young man, need to learn some manners," Miss Honey said. Her voice was different. It was cold and vicious.

"You have no right to keep me here," William said. "Oh, I have more of a right than you think," Miss Honey said, and her eyes glowed purple. Then she transformed. Her fingers grew long and bony, she got taller and skinnier, and her nose got sharper. She was a witch. But not any witch. The Grand High Witch. William's eyes widened with terror, and he screamed as the Grand High Witch turned off the lights. Unfortunately for him, the only one within earshot was the janitor, and he was listening to music from his earphone, so he couldn't hear a thing.


	37. William Disappears

After detention, I was taken to the school nurse to bandage up by bruised arm. The nurse was a six armed, one-eyed, squid-like monster. I had no idea what creature it was.

While there, who else but Isaac and Bratfur came. I had one question for them: "Where were you during the fight?"

"Bratfur got his leg tangled in some long grass and I had to help him while you ran off to help Bugsy, I mean Pandora," Isaac said. "If only I was there," Bratfur said. "I would've turned into a cobra and strangled the life out of them."

"Well, the fight's over now," I said. "Where are the bullies?" Isaac asked. "Glut and Dag are having detention, Miss Honey is having a talk with William," I replied. Isaac heaved a sigh of relief. "I'm glad William is being straightened out by the teacher." I nodded. In the back of my head, I wondered what was happening over at William's home."

. . .

Henry was on the phone with Mr. Arturo. "What do you mean?" He was saying to the principal. "Your son tried to beat a kid up," Mr. Arturo replied. "I'm sure that kid deserved it," Henry said. "Then Benjamin, a vampire, came and got into a fight with him," Arturo continued. "That vampire should mind his own business," Henry replied.

"Well, a couple of other kids were involved and someone called the teacher and she broke up the fight," Arturo finished. "What?" Henry said. "My son would've creamed Benjamin if that teacher hadn't been called. He's a cheater."

"Oh really," Arturo said. "Your son had two kids with him while trying to beat up that one kid." Henry snorted. Not having a very good answer, he simply put the phone down. "What was that about?" Vera asked. "Vera, William was trying to reason with some kids about superiority," William said, not telling her he'd tried to beat up Pandora. "But those kids wouldn't listen to reason. They attacked him and got him in detention."

"That's just awful," Vera said. "Vera, we are going to pay a little visit to that kid and straighten him out," Henry hissed.

. . .

Back at the Vampyrs cave, things hadn't been going so well. They had received threatening phone-calls from Dag's parents, and Glut's parents had actually barged into their house, with his mom trying to hit me and his dad trying to hit Victor and Farley. They were thrown out by Altair and Alucard.

We were actually waiting for William's parents to come. Their arrival would be inevitable. Every once in a while we would turn to the clock and wonder when William's parents would arrive. Geronimo, Trap, Petunia, and Thea had all been called to the Vampyrs house.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, we heard a knock on the door. Altair opened it up, and unsurprisingly, we saw Henry and Vera at the door.

"Where's the little brat?" Henry asked. "You mean Benjamin?" Geronimo asked, having come to see who had arrived. "Of course him!" Vera barked. Hearing my name, I came over to the door. Victor and Farley came too.

"You little rat!" Henry yelled. "Hey, don't talk to my nephew like that," Geronimo said. "I should beat you," Henry continued, as if not noticing Geronimo. Geronimo jumped in front of him. "You will not lay a hand on anyone here," Geronimo said, getting angrier every second.

Henry pointed an accusing finger at him. "You should punish the brat," Henry said to him. "He's a cheater."

"How?" Thea asked, having come to see what the entire ruckus was about. Trap and Petunia came too. "His friend called the teacher," Vera thundered. "If that brat hadn't, William would've creamed him. He was frightened of getting whipped, so he turned to his friend."

"For your information, Benjamin did that to save someone!" Geronimo yelled. "That kid was a smelly brat," Henry said. "That smelly brat is my niece," Petunia said. "Then now I know why she's a brat," Vera said. "She learned it from you."

"If you ask me, you're overreacting here," Trap said. "They got into a fight, it got broken up, and they got detention." Before Henry could answer, Geronimo said, "You have no business here. If all you've come here to do is argue about a fight your son caused, then be gone."

Vera stared down at me. "This isn't over," She sneered before she and her husband left, slamming the door behind them."

. . .

At school the next day, William wasn't there. That was the first thing I noticed. Dag and Glut were there, but William wasn't. I went up to Miss Honey. "Where's William?" I asked. The teacher paused, as if thinking of something, and then said, "His parents transferred him to a different school."

I didn't know what to think. At lunch, when the teacher left, I told the whole class. "William's been transferred to a different school."

Everyone had different reactions. Most were overjoyed, some were shocked, and a few actually missed him. "It just doesn't make sense," I said to Victor. "Why would the teacher not let us in on this right at the start of school."

"Maybe she didn't know how to tell us this because it was so sudden," Victor replied. "That was the best answer I could think of."

At recess, someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Dag, and Glut was there with him. "Will is gone because of you," Glut said. Dag cracked his knuckles. "You're going to pay." However, Penniford and Saveanna came out of nowhere to break up the fight. Pandora and Victor came to. "No one's going to pay," Saveanna said. "Especially not Benjamin." Outnumbered, Dag and Glut ran away.

. . .

At the Vampyrs home, there was a knock on the door again. For some reason, I knew who it was. Geronimo opened the door, and Henry and Vera were there again.

"Where is he?" Henry asked. "You mean Benjamin?" Geronimo asked. "Not him," Vera said. "Where's our son?"

I had ignored the werewolves up until I heard that word. "What do you mean," I asked. "Our son's missing and I have a feeling you took him," Henry said. "How dare you accuse us of such a thing," Geronimo said. "My instincts are never wrong," Henry said. "Our son's missing and it's all your fault."

"But the teacher said you transferred him," I said. "We would never do that," Vera said. "William's been kicked out of nearly every school here and he is not going to get transferred again."

"Well we didn't take him," Geronimo said. "You're accusing us of kidnapping." Then Henry got up in Geronimo's face. "You're darn right I'm accusing you," He said. "I'm always right." Geronimo pushed him away. "Leave," He said. "Not without our son," Vera said. "But we didn't take him," Geronimo said. "Either hand him over or we're calling the police," Vera replied.

"Do that then," Geronimo said. "Have them search the whole cave. Your son is not here." I gulped. The idea of men and women we didn't know crowding inside our house was not the most pleasant of things. "Fine," Henry said. With that, they left, slamming the door behind them.

. . .

As it turned out, William's parents were not lying when they said they would call the police. The very next day, we had a knock on the door and when we opened it, a dozen police and cameramen were crowding around the house. As we learned later, everyone involved in the fight had their home checked by the police.

"What's happening," Geronimo asked. "Mr, I'd stand aside if I were you," A policeman said. Reluctantly, we stood aside, and the police checked the entire cave. I'm not kidding. They moved paintings, checked every corner and crack, and lifted up chairs and tables.

After what was exactly three hours and thirty-five minutes, and yes, I counted, the police left our house. They had found no hostage.

Geronimo was watching TV later on when the News came up. Do you know what the Newsperson was talking about? Here is what he was saying:

"Two days ago, a little boy named William disappeared at school. His parents suspect that the Vampyrs family may have something to do with the disappearance. The police checked the Vampyrs cave, but found no results. It seems the entire thing started with a fight at school. More information will be released tomorrow." Geronimo switched the TV off and face palmed himself. "This has been a bad day," He said.


	38. Volt is Found Out

Geronimo scampered through the Vampyrs cave. He was headed to the basement. It was rather odd, since the basement was by far the scariest place in the cave and Geronimo was frightened out of his fur by the living room alone.

"Goo, goo?" Something said. Geronimo froze and turned around. It was Slugsy Wugsy. Slugsy had gone to live with the Woz family, who had gone to visit the Vampyrs. Why, you may ask. Here's why: Glut's parents had vandalised The Woz house. Now that was very immature for adults. The nature of how the house was vandalised will not be explained, but for the Woz to have to move in temporarily with the Vampyrs, you could guess that the nature of which the house was vandalised would've made you faint.

Anyway, Slugsy stared at Geronimo. "Goo, goo?" He repeated. "Shush," Geronimo said softly. However, it was too late; Isaac had come, followed by Buddy. "Why are you going down into the basement?" Isaac asked when he saw Geronimo. "Well…" Geronimo paused.

"Come on, out with it," Buddy said harshly. Isaac nudged him. "Well, OK, I'll tell you," Geronimo said. He whispered in Isaac's ear. Isaac nearly hit the ceiling. "HE'S HERE?" He yelled. "Shush," Geronimo said.

"Who's here?" Buddy asked. "It's Professor von Volt," Geronimo admitted. "Who's that?" Buddy asked. "The Professor at New Mouse City," Geronimo explained. "Why can't the others know?" Isaac asked. "The others are vampires," Geronimo said. "If they find a mouse here, they'll drink his blood, I'm sure of it."

"Why isn't he a mythical creature?" Isaac asked. "Because, the Grand High Wizard cast the dome above the ground, not under it," Geronimo explained. "But the Teufelchen were under ground and they were monsters," Isaac said. "But they were genuine monsters, Volt is not," Geronimo said. "Wait a moment, Benjamin and the others didn't change back into mice when they went underground," Isaac said. "But, they were creatures before they went underground so they didn't change," Geronimo said. "Creatures?" Buddy asked. "I will not say my nephew is a monster," Geronimo said firmly.

"Uncle G," I said, running up to him. "Hey, Professor von Volt is under there in the ground," Buddy said. "HE'S HERE?" I said, jumping into the air like Isaac. "Why would you tell him that?" Geronimo asked. "He's a mouselet, why would he eat him?"

"Don't worry, I already drank three cups, I was dehydrated," I said. "Now I'm full. I don't think I'll need to drink anymore blood as of now."

Then we heard a knocking from underground; Volt was knocking on the walls to signal Geronimo. He was confused as to why Geronimo had not come yet. "He wants us to come now," Geronimo said. "Let's not upset him."

We opened the basement door and started to walk down. Water dripped from the ceiling, dropping on our heads. The stairs creaked with every step. They were undoubtedly very old, likely older than the Grand High Witch herself. The stairs seemed endless, and we were getting tired. Geronimo was shaking with fear; he was not used to being in places like this.

Finally, we came to a stop at the end of the stairs. We rested our paws on the ground. It was pitch black underground. Everyone was scared, even Buddy. A worm then dropped on my shoulder. I jumped and flicked it away.

"Where's Professor von Volt?" I asked. "He's somewhere down here," Geronimo said. "You mean you're unsure where he is," Buddy snarled. "Hey, he just dropped me into his metal ship, he didn't show me where I was," Geronimo snapped.

"Look for something silver," I said. "It was silver, right?" Geronimo nodded. We searched around. For a minute or so, we found nothing. We were all beginning to get impatient. Finally, just as we were about to give up, Isaac bumped his nose on something steel. "Ow," He said. I ran up and placed my paws forward, and I felt something steel. "Isaac found the ship," I said. "Well, it's not a ship but I don't know what else to call it so let's call it that." The others ran up to it. Geronimo knocked on the ship, signalling to Volt they were here. In response, the door opened and we all ran inside.

Sure enough, there stood Volt. "Hello, old friend," He said. "Long time, no see."

"But I saw you about four days ago," Geronimo said. "Still, it felt like a long time," Volt said. Before they could continue, I interrupted. I had a few questions. "Why are you here, Volt?" I asked. "Well, I heard Geronimo and Creepella talking about going to Mysterious Valley and decided to follow you. I had this idea that whoever vandalised my invention had to do with why you were here, so I followed you, thinking I could help."

"And why didn't you tell us?" I asked. "Well, I was too shocked by my destroyed invention I forgot," Prof. Volt admitted. "I'd still like to know who did that."

"You really want to know," Geronimo said. Volt nodded. "I don't know, but I have a good guess." Geronimo whispered in Volt's ear. "Now it makes sense," Volt said. "I dished them at that assembly."

"They are doing something much worse," Isaac said. "They are planning an up rise to take over Mysterious Valley," Isaac said. "How do you know?" Buddy asked. "That woman who took your happiness," Isaac said. "I bet she was one of them."

"We have to stop them," Prof. Volt said. It was then we heard paw steps from outside. We became as still as possible. Then Buddy sneezed. "Who's there?" A voice asked. It was Victor. The door opened, and Victor and Farley came in.

Both of them jumped when they saw us. "It's a mouse," Victor said. "It's dinner," Farley declared. "Wait, stop," I said. "Why," Farley asked. "He has a point, you already had dinner," Farley said. You know how vampires had this ability to look inside others to see if they had any blood in them? Well, Victor did this to Farley to see if he was full, and he gasped. He had seen my blood with that x-ray vision earlier, and while there was a tiny speck of it, he could see that my blood was inside Farley.

I noticed the look on his face, and asked, "Are you alright?" Victor snapped back into reality. "I'm fine," He lied.

"It's getting late, we should all be going now," Geronimo said. We left Prof. von Volt and ran up the stairs. "Goodbye," Isaac said. He ran out of the house and back to his house. Little did he know, a skinny figure watched him from a distance. A figure named Snotnose.

At the Vampyrs, while Farley slept, Victor confronted me. "You know how you were bitten by a vampire bat, causing you to become a vampire?' He asked. I nodded. "I think I know who bit you," He said. He whispered in my ear. "WHAT?" I screamed. "What is it?" Amides asked. "Nothing," I said. I turned back to Victor. "So your saying Farley bit me while on my way to Monster Valley?" I asked. He nodded. I fainted.

Farley looked down at my body. "I knew he wouldn't take this well," He said. He dragged me into my room and into bed. As soon as he left, I woke up. "Should I confront Farley on this now?" I asked myself. "No, I'll confront him tomorrow." With that, I fell to sleep.


	39. William is Found

I yawned and woke up. It was morning time. Then I looked at the clock. I jumped. It was 8:20. School started at 9:00. I remembered telling Farley about him biting me. I had intended on telling him in the morning before school, but I didn't have time. I would have to wait until we went to school.

I jumped out of bed, threw off my pyjamas, and put on my clothes. I didn't even bother putting my pyjamas in the laundry. I ran downstairs where Victor and Farley were. Victor had not told Farley what I was going to tell him, because he believed that this was between him and me.

"Good morning, sleepy head," Farley said. "Or should I say, sleepy bled? Get it, sleepy bled?" Victor stared at him. "That's not funny, Farley," He said. "What's for breakfast?" I asked. Before Victor or Farley could answer, I said, "I know. Bunny rabbit fingers."

I dove towards the fridge, and, before you could say "Frankenstein's toenail!", I had gobbled the whole thing down. "Are you OK, Ben?" Farley asked. "I'm just fine," I said.

I ran upstairs, brushed my fangs, put on my school bag, and ran out the door. Farley tapped me on the shoulder, turning me into a bat, and all three of us flew off. By now I had forgotten about talking to Farley.

. . .

I walked across the hallway. I had completely forgotten about talking to Farley about him biting me and turning me into a vampire.

"Help!"

I spun around. Bratfur ran up to me. He was running on the spot as he said these words to me: "Bob the zombie is after me again!" This time, I didn't bother telling him to transform into something that could scare away Bob. I had nothing else to do and decided to let him think of how to fix the problem. Bob came and Bratfur ran, but Bob didn't stop chasing him.

Eventually, they ran past Farley. I snapped into attention as I saw him. I remembered what I needed to tell him. I pushed past everyone.

"You elbowed me in the stomach," Glut growled.

"You stepped on my tail," Dag sneered.

"What a jerk," They both said.

I wasn't paying attention to them. "Come back here, Benjamin," Glut snarled, and they both started scampering towards me, but I couldn't care less. I finally got to Farley.

I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around. He didn't care that Glut and Dag were coming either; without William as the leader, they weren't much of a threat.

"Yes, Benjamin Stilton?" He asked. "Farley," I said in my softest voice, "You remember how I was bitten on my way here, right? I was turned into a vampire because a vampire bit me."

"What are they talking about?" Glut asked. They stopped to listen. Carmen and Tasha came to listen, too. Soon everyone had come to listen, but I didn't realize this.

"Well," I continued. "I know who bit me." Farley froze like a statue. He put on a nervous smile and asked, "Who would that be?"

I leaned in closer and said, "You." Everyone gasped, except Victor. "Victor told me," I said. Everyone stared at Victor, including Farley.

"What do you have to say or yourself, Farley?" I asked. Farley whispered, "Bat form up!" Immediately, he transformed into a bat and flew off, squeaking. "Hey!" I yelled. I tried to turn into a bat by snapping my fingers. I changed into…a rabbit.

I hopped towards the bat Farley. I jumped, clapped my hands, and turned into a bullfrog. I hopped after Farley. "You come back here!" I yelled. I croaked and transformed into a pigeon. "That's better," I said as I dove towards Farley.

I collided with the bat. "Get off me," He said. We spun around so fast we became a blur, and landed squarely in the trashcan, who's lid had been uncovered for who knows why. Even though we were both very tiny in our bat and pigeon forms, the speed that we hit the trashcan caused it to fly off the ground and hit the door that led to the basement.

The door was closed, but the trashcan hit the door with so much force it flew open, and the two of us tumbled down the stairs. "Ouch! Eek! Oof!" We yelled as the trashcan we were in crashed into the ground. It fell right on the 6th step and flew into the wall. We bumped our heads together. Then the trashcan rolled down the second light of stairs.

"I'll…ow…try to…oof…get us…out!" Farley managed to say as we crashed onto the stairs repeatedly. He peeked his head out of the can. Bad idea. The trashcan was flying straight towards the wall, and the opening of the can was the part that hit the wall, and Farley's head was peeking out from the opening when the can hit the wall. Let's just say Farley wouldn't be getting us out soon enough.

The other children were staring down from the door. "What do we do?" Ralph asked. "Well we have to do something," Pandora said. They all ran down the stairs. However, they were so focused on getting to me and Farley that they weren't thinking straight. All of them were pouring down the stairs at once, and as you probably know, that is not a good idea. As they got to the second light of stairs, Rebecca crashed into Victor, and Victor crashed into the gremlin trio, and so on. Soon they were all tumbling down the stairs. Not everybody was feeling much pain. Some kids were lucky enough to be on top of the other and not feel the stairs, but most weren't as lucky.

All of them eventually crashed into the wall. Most were unconscious or stunned, but a few, like Pandora, had gotten up and slowly walked down the stairs. It was not easy as there was many flights of stairs and it got boring. Eventually, most of the other kids got up. But then Dark tripped on Carmen, who was still stunned, and it started all over again.

They eventually got to the bottom of the stairs. They rested there for a long time. The trashcan lay besides them, beaten and battered. "Oooh, my leg," Farley said as he crawled out of the can. We had both transformed back into our normal selves. I used the can to push me up.

I turned around and said, "Where are we?" Farley scratched his ears and said, "The basement." Glut and Dag ran down the stairs. They had not ran down the stairs like the others. Glut turned around. Victor got up and stretched. Isaac pushed himself off the ground.

"This is definitely not the best of days," Malcolm said as he helped Liza get up. "You can say that again," Buddy said.

"Help," A voice echoed. "Who's there?" I said, turning around. "It's me," The voice answered. "W-W-William?" Dag said. "Get me out of here," The voice that apparently belonged to William said. "I'll find you William," Glut said.

It was dark in the basement, so we couldn't see a thing. As we scampered about blindly, a spider crawled over Rebecca's paw. She squeaked. "Something skittered over my paw!" She shrieked. "Don't be such a drama mouse," Ralph said. I walked straight and bumped my snout. It was something wooden. I tapped on it. I felt it and found a doorknob. I grabbed it and pulled it and the door opened. I reached in, and I felt someone take my hand. I pulled whoever was in there out of what I realized was a wardrobe.

"You found me," He said, and he sounded relieved. It was William. "I found the lights," Malcolm said. The lights flickered on, allowing us to see. As soon as William saw it was me, he did something unbelievably ungrateful. His smile turned into a frown, and he yelled, "Get your stinking paws off me!"

He shook his paw away and shoved pass me. "Hey, I saved you!" I said. "Yeah, then you should've left the saving to one of the members of my superior species, the werewolves, you vampiric geek." William growled. I was completely shocked by the bully's lack of gratitude.

Everyone had now scampered over to us in a huge crowd. "Did you thank Benjamin?" Dark asked. "Why would I thank that fanged loser?" William snapped. "But he saved your butt dude," Ralph butted in. "He stumbled upon me by chance," William argued. "He's too stupid to have actually been able to find me unless it was an accident. Only werewolves are intelligent."

"What is your problem?" Isaac asked. "The problem is you," William snapped. "All of you. You don't understand that werewolves are above you. You have no purpose on Earth, so why are you even on it?"

Everyone was taken back. Even Glut and Dag were shocked. William then started ranting and raving at us. "Vampires are dumb, trolls are hideous, Gremlins are too tiny and scaly." This went on for several minutes. Finally, he pointed at Pandora. "You are a little midget. A shrimp. You are also a coward, since you stood there as your idiot friends had to fight us."

"And what makes you so special!" A voice called out. William spun around. It was me. I had gotten fed up with the bully's racist thoughts. It was time to give him a piece of my mind.

"Now listen here wolfy, I have put up with your nonsense for over a week, all of this nonsense about your kind being superior. Well how are you superior?" William was taken back at this. No one had spoken to him like this. Ever.

"You think because of your howling, your speed, your fancy claws, that makes you better than us?" I said, getting angrier every second. "Well let me tell you something buddy, you're no better than any of us here! You're even worse."

William turned from shocked to angry. "How dare you speak to me like that!" He yelled, and raised his fist to hit me, but I grabbed his arm, threw him into the wall, and pinned him there. "Glut, Dag, help me," William whispered, but the two acted as if they heard nothing. They were just as angry as the rest of us. They folded their arms and turned their heads.

"If you're so brave and superior, you wouldn't need to call out to them," I said. "In fact, you are just a lowly coward at heart. You beat up kids younger and smaller than you, and with your cronies with you. How is that brave? You try to make yourself feel big by putting others down, but you are no real brave person, you are a dirty coward at heart!"

I finally released him. He slumped to the ground, exhausted. His humiliation and revelation of his cowardice was too much for him.

"I have been through much worse than you have," I said. "I've been run over by a giant snowball, nearly eaten by wolves, and fallen from a mini-sleigh," I said. "But most importantly, I lost my father." I had whispered the last part so only a few kids heard it.

It was about to get worse for him. "Chicken," the other kids started chanting. "Coward, chicken, coward, chicken. You are nothing but…a coward."

William had been broken. Whatever pride he had once had was gone. As he once stood up proud and tall, he was now bent and sad. He moaned and groaned as he walked through all the children who hurled insults at him. They stuck their tongues out and spat at him.

"Enough!" I bellowed. "He is finished." Everyone cheered. I silenced them. "You should be ashamed too," I told them, and they were quite surprised at my outburst. "You let William pick on you all without doing anything. You could've told the teacher, supported his victims, and made William feel what you felt. But instead you sat there and took it, thinking that he would be kicked out when he would finally happen upon an unlucky kid and beat him up. How could you?"

Everyone hung their heads in shame. Steven was the first to raise his head. He scampered towards William and stopped him. He didn't apologize or hurl another insult, but asked him a question: "Who trapped you in there?"

William stopped. No one knew this, but a sparkle of hope and repentance had shined within him. Sensing a chance to redeem himself, he whispered in Steven's ear. "WHAT?" Steven yelled. "What is it," I asked. "William says Miss Honey took his ability to howl and then locked him in the wardrobe," Steven said.

For a moment I was too shocked to speak. Then I turned to William and said, "William, is this true?" He nodded. "Miss Honey said 'in this very hour, I take your power' and for a moment I couldn't breath. Then she told me that she had taken my howling abilities and planned to use them in some sort of plan to take over the valley."

Victor and Farley ran over to us. They had heard what we had said. "Benjamin, I think you should come with us," Victor said. "What about Miss Honey?" I asked. "If what William says is true, then all of the children at the school are in danger."

Pandora came, followed by Isaac, Bratfur, Carmen, Tasha, and the gremlins. "Don't worry, we'll handle her," Pandora said. Rebecca and Ralph came. "You're our little sister. If you come, we come."

By now, me, Victor, and Farley had already ran out of the school. "Hey, Benjamin," Victor said. "What happened with your father?" I sighed. "I'll explain when we get to your cave."

"You're not still mad about me biting you?" Farley asked. "With what's happening now, I don't think that's important now," I sighed.

Back at the school, Pandora was leading the small group to Miss Honey's room. "Ugh," a voice moaned. It was Bob. "It's him!" Bratfur squeaked. Then he remembered his shape-sifting ability. He transformed into a cobra and hissed. Bob stopped and spread out his hand, moaning.

"I can understand what he's saying," Isaac said. "He says you accidentally took his special pencil and he wants it back." Bratfur reverted back into his normal form. "Oh," He said and handed Bob the pencil. Bob moaned again. "Bob says he wants to help us," Isaac said. "Right now, we need all the help we can get, so he can come with us," Tasha said. The group continued on their way to find Miss Honey.


	40. The Statues

Me, Victor, and Farley reached our cave. "So what did you have to show me?" I asked. "You'll find out," Victor said. We walked into the house and bumped into Geronimo. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Uh…well…" Farley hesitated. "We found William," I interrupted. "Really, where?" Geronimo asked. "It turns out he tripped and fell into a wardrobe that closed and locked him in." Victor lied. Geronimo scratched his head. "That's it?" He asked. "Yup," Victor said.

We ran past him. "Come on, when are we going to get there?" I asked. I was worried about how much danger everyone was in. "I never should have left Bugsy, I mean Pandora, in harms way. Who knows what that evil witch is capable of?"

"Don't worry," Victor said. "They'll beat her." I sighed and said," I hope you're right."

"We're here," Farley said. It was a room. I had never gone there because I was forbidden by Altair. Every hour I was at the cave I wondered what was so important in the room.

We walked into the room, looking around for anything. Then we came to a bed. The bed was covered in a white sheet. I could make out a figure under the bed. I approached the bed slowly and cautiously. Closing my eyes, I pulled off the sheet and gasped.

. . .

"This is it," Pandora said. "This is Miss Honey's room." Beaver gulped. "Are you sure we're ready?" Pandora thought for a moment, and then she said, "No."

Before anyone could do anything, Tasha kicked open the door. Miss Honey sat at her desk. She was startled to see them. "Students, what are you doing here?"

"I'd like to ask you the same question Miss Honey…if that's your real name." Tasha replied harshly. Miss Honey gulped. "What are you talking about?" She asked. "I'd like to know why a slimy sewer rat like you would be in this school, sucking the power out of children for your own evil plan."

Miss Honey got up from her chair with a look on her face that obviously meant "What are you talking about?"

As if reading her mind, Carmen said, "We found William. He told us what you did to him. You took away his ability to howl and then locked him in a wardrobe to die." Miss Honey's eyes widened, then she narrowed them. "How do you know he wasn't lying, wanting to get back at me?"

"He was locked in a wardrobe for about three days," Rebecca said. "No way he would be lying about that." Isaac piped in. "Plus, you said he transferred, and you were the last one with him, so that would mean…"

"You were lying all along," Everyone said. Miss Honey's eyes twitched with anger. "You have found me out, I'll admit that," She said in a voice that had a stinging tone in it," But you have not stopped me."

With that, she transformed. She transformed just like she had done to William. She cackled like a maniac and she grew taller, uglier, and scarier. There was a puff of green smoke that made the mouselets eyes water and cough like mad, and then Miss Honey appeared. She had transformed into her true form, the Grand High Witch.

The mouselets gasped. The Grand High Witch pointed a bony finger at Pandora. "You will come with me," She said. "I will steal your powers and render you helpless." Isaac and Bratfur jumped in front of the witch. "Not while we're here," Isaac said.

"So be it," The Grand High Witch said, and her hands glowed red, and a beam shot from them. "Duck," Bratfur shouted as they avoided the beams.

. . .

"Who is that?" I asked as I stared down at the mouselet. The mouselet was a girl, and very pale. She was even paler than Mizoram. Victor sighed. "That's our sister, Susan." I stared down at the pale girl. Every part of her was white and pale. Even her clothes were pale.

"What happened to her?" I asked. "Several days before you arrived, Susan was lured into a forest by a witch," Farley said. "The Grand High Witch." I gasped. Farley continued. "I tried to stop her, but she went into the house, the witch caught me, and she stole Susan's powers."

"Which powers did the Grand High Witch steal?" I asked. "We're not sure," Victor said. "She was fine right after, but each day she showed signs of sickness, getting paler and paler, and finally, the day before you arrived, she wound up like this."

"Do you think she'll die?" I asked. "I'm unsure," Victor said. "This has happened before, and all of the victims become pale and comatose."

"If that is the case, then we must stop the witches," I said. "Hey, before we go, what happened with your father anyway?" Farley asked. For a moment I didn't speak. Finally, I spoke.

"One year ago, right before Winter came, me, my father, and my mother were just driving across the streets. We had to pick up some food for our sick grandmother. It felt like a normal day, until it happened."

"What happened," Victor and Farley asked. "We were driving over a bridge when another car came driving right towards us. I think the driver was drunk or something. Then the car crashed into a van, and both vehicles collided with our car. The car that bumped us remained on the bridge, but the van and our car flew off the bridge and onto the ground below. We tumbled down the hill, feeling each blow, getting injured every second, and then both vehicles crashed right into the water."

Victor and Farley jumped. I continued. "I saw the family from the van swim to the surface, but one member of that family appeared to have drowned. My family was still alive, but I couldn't swim at the time and was sinking. My father swam and grabbed me and pulled me to the surface. I woke up then, woke up just in time to see a shard of grass fly right into my father's head and into his skull. Then he just floated there, motionlessly. I looked up at the car that caused the whole thing, and to my surprise, the driver in the car was…smiling down at the disaster. She seemed to enjoy the whole thing, as if it were intentional. She then drove away."

"That's horrible," Victor said. "Outrageous." I sighed. "I can never forget that eerie smile. When I go to bed I wake up with nightmares." There was silence for a long time. Finally, I said, "But as much as it pains me about that, what matters now is the presence and what is happening now. We must go."

. . .

The Grand High Witch threw a bolt of lightning at Tasha. She dodged. Pointy ran at her. "Oh you foolish child," The witch cackled and breathed fire at him. He ducked. "Hah, you missed," He taunted. "Hey, is something burning or is that just me?" He then looked up the see the tip of his ears on fire. "Help!" He cried, running around in circles. "My ear is on fire! My ear is on fire!"

Punk Gremlin jumped on the Grand High Witch's back while Beaver nibbled on her leg. Screeching, she swung her leg in the air, and Beaver flew right into Isaac, and they crashed comically into the wall, knocking them out upon impact. Bratfur turned into a black glob of goo and slithered to the witch. The Grand High Witch grabbed Punk Gremlin and threw him at the goo. Bratfur had time only to scream as Punk Gremlin crashed right into him, causing him to explode into tiny bits of goo that reformed in moments. Isaac got up.

Pointy, still running around with his ear in fire, lit Isaac's tail on fire. "YEEOWWWCH!" he cried, jumping into the air, and landed headfirst into the garbage can. Rebecca grabbed a table and ripped the top right off it's legs and threw it, like a disk, at the Grand High Witch. The impact sent her flying into a wall, stunning her. Bratfur then turned into a giant flying squirrel and soared at the witch, but she woke up and blew a puff of smoke at them.

Bratfur was the first to get hit by the smoke, and he disappeared. Everyone else soon disappeared as well. When the smoke cleared, everyone was gone. It was then that Mr. Arturo came into the room. "What happened?" He asked himself when he saw the mess in the room. But everyone had disappeared, so he didn't know who did it.

In a dark castle, there was a puff of smoke, and all of the children fell down onto the ground. There was a thud as they hit the floor. "Ow," Bratfur moaned. "That coward," Tasha said. "She didn't have the guts to admit defeat."

"Well, no one said this would be easy," Ralph said. "Where are we anyway?" Everyone looked around. They were in what appeared to be a dark hallway. It was in an unbelievably huge hallway, and it was around 50 meters in width and 70 meters in length.

There were stone statues lined up at the walls. Each statue had the face of a different animal: One had the face of a wolf, another had the face of an eagle, and one had the face of a gecko. There were statues that had the face of creatures that lived in dinosaur times. Overall, none of the statues had the same face. However, they all had the same body, and they wore different types of medieval helmets, and all of them were equipped with medieval weapons of all sorts. They had swords, spears, battle axes, bows and arrows, shurikens, and they all wielded shields.

"I really wouldn't want to fight them," Tasha said, "Let's get out of here." They ran down the hallway. As they ran, the statue with the eagle face turned its head in the direction the kids had gone, and its eyes glowed.

. . .

We were nearly at school. Since Mr. Arturo had found Miss Honey's classroom trashed, school ended early, but we did not know this. We soon reached the school and ran inside. It was rather funny. We had left the school no less than 20 minutes ago and were now hurrying back.

Soon we reached Miss Honey's classroom, but no one was there. The entire place was trashed. "What happened?" Farley gasped. "Well, Mr. They'll Beat Her, it looks like they couldn't beat her.," I sneered at Victor.

"We don't know for a fact that they didn't beat her," Victor said. "Well then, what happened?" I asked. "I don't know, but I'm sure they are fine," Victor said. He didn't know how wrong he was.

. . .

"Caw-caw!" Something screeched. "What was that?" Carmen asked. The kids turned around. They saw nothing. Then Isaac turned and saw a large figure in the dark with a sword in its paw. It raised the sword over Pandora's head. "Look out!" He squeaked and pushed Pandora out of the way as the sword came down.

Then all of the statues ran out of the darkness. "I don't know whether to scream or laugh," Tasha exclaimed. "I find this more exciting then scary," Pandora said. "I agree," Bratfur said. "This will be tons of fun."

The statue with a lion's head ran towards Isaac, and he punched it in the chest. "Ow," He said, grabbing his sore paw. The statue raised a sword over Isaac. Then Tasha jumped into the air, spinning around, and the last thing the statue saw was a foot flying right into its face. Punk Gremlin was fighting a komodo dragon-faced statue when the head of the lion statue flew right at his feet. Thinking fast, Punk Gremlin grabbed the head and slammed it into the other statue's snout, with the lion head breaking upon impact. The other statue stood still for a moment, and then its snout cracked, and the crack soured through the body until the statue epically exploded.

Tasha kicked a statue with the face of a Placodus , which was an ancient marine reptile, in a…sensitive area. The crack raised up to its head, and it broke in half. Then a statue with a Erythrosuchus' face came up behind her. An Erythrosuchus was an early reptile. Anyway, it grabbed Tasha and lifted her off the ground with its left hand. Then he pulled out a sword with his right hand. As he was about to plunge it into Tasha's heart, Beaver chomped onto the statue's left leg so hard it broke off. This gave Tasha enough time to send a swinging kick into the statue's side, ripping it in half from the torso. The two halves crashed onto the ground and broke into a million pieces.

Tasha fell to the ground. "Quick, turn them to stone," Beaver said. "Uh, Beaver, what are they made out of?" She asked sarcastically. "Oh," Beaver said, embarrassed. Rebecca jumped on a Lystrosaurus-faced statue's back. Lystrosaurus was a mammal-like reptile. Since you're probably getting tired of me telling you this, I'll stop.

Rebecca chomped onto the statue's left shoulder. She continued biting into it until the arm holding the spear fell off. Rebecca then kicked the statue's right foot, breaking it off, and the statue fell to the ground. It was then a Lagosuchus-faced statue hurled a spear at her, and caught her by the sleeve. It sent her flying into Ralph, and they tumbled down a set of stairs. By the time they reached the bottom, Rebecca was unconscious. The statue responsible walked down the stairs menacingly, wielding a sword. Ralph looked up at the statue, and then started pushing his sister, saying, "Rebecca, wake up."

"Hey ugly, want to play?" A voice called out. The statue turned around and saw a shield fly right at it. It sliced through the statue's neck, and the head flew through the air. "Caw-caw!" The eagle-faced statue screeched at Pointy. As it opened its mouth, the head flew into hits mouth and down the throat. The statue bent and turned and the decapitated head burst out of the stomach, causing the statue to explode.

"Arf-arf, grrr," Something growled. We turned around. There were three dog statues. They were shaped like dogs and stood on four legs. They were all painted. The underside and insides of the statue dogs were unpainted, but the rest was painted. One was painted green, the second was painted red, and the third was painted blue.

"Ow," Rebecca moaned, waking up. She saw the dogs and nearly fainted again. Ralph shook her, snapping her back to reality. "We have to fight them," he told her. "Great," Rebecca said sarcastically. The three dogs charged. The green dog tackled Isaac. "Oof!" He shouted as he was thrown against the wall.

"Grrr," the dog snarled. The red dog circled Rebecca and Ralph. Ralph started whacking it on the head with the arm of one of the statues. This only enraged the statue dog, and it jumped at them. It stopped in midair and after a moment, jumped and bucked around in the air like a bull, and Ralph was the first to see why: Dark and Punk Gremlin had dug their claws into the dog's back.

"Help!" Pandora squeaked and she hung onto the blue dog's head. It was barking and growling. A statue came towards them. Believe it or not, it had the face of a Velociraptor. It didn't need a sword, it already had it's teeth. Then Pointy jumped on the statue's back and pulled it back. He threw back his head and pulled, and the statue started tumbling to a wall. Pointy pulled the statue around, and it slammed into the wall. Then Pointy pulled the statue to another wall.

"It ain't right for a man to be ridden like that," Bratfur said, mesmerised by the whole thing. Pointy then jumped off the statue as it crashed into one of the pillars and broke into pieces. Bob grabbed a piece of the pillar and threw it at the blue dog's head. It collided with the dog and knocked it away. Both Pandora and the dog fell down the stairs and crashed on the ground. Pandora was unconscious, but the dog got up and stalked towards her. Suddenly Rebecca and Ralph jumped on its back and it ran around in a circle.

Isaac ran as the green dog chased him. Suddenly Bratfur blocked its way. The dog stopped for a moment, and got ready to pounce. Isaac threw a half of the pillar to Bob as the dog jumped. Bob grabbed the pillar and turned to the dog. Bob pulled his arms forward and the pillar struck the dog in the face, sending the dog flying back.

It landed behind the blue dog, who was snapping at Rebecca and Ralph, who clung to its back. "Whoa, wow!" they squeaked. Rebecca dodged one bite and the dog bit its own tail so hard the tail fell off. "Growww!" it howled and bucked into the air, throwing Rebecca and Ralph off. They landed on the ground, stunned.

Punk Gremlin and Dark jumped off the red dog and ran to help the two. "Grrr!" the green dog growled. The green dog and the blue dog stalked to the two gremlins and the unconscious kids. Punk Gremlin and Dark stood in front of Pandora's siblings and made a defensive position. They clenched their fists, narrowed their eyes, and growled. By now, everyone, including the statues, were thinking the same thing: "Who would win?"


	41. The Scorpion

The blue dog charged. Suddenly, there was a flash of claws and the dog fell to the ground. It had three deep claw marks in its side. Dark jumped in front of it. The dog growled and got up. As it stalked towards him. He pulled back his fist and connected it with the dog's snout. Stone flew out of the dog's gaping jaws; that was it spitting.

The red dog ran at him, but a beam of red light zapped it and sent it flying. Rebecca had woken up. It crashed to the ground right on its side and stayed their. The blue dog jumped on Carmen and started biting and pounding her. Then Tasha kicked it in the stomach, leaving a hole. Everyone stood their watching the scene, mesmerised.

Amazingly, the blue dog was still up and fighting. He snapped at Tasha, but she jumped into the air and landed on the dog's already injured snout. A statue with the face of a crocodile charged and swung its sword at Tasha, but she dodged and the sword came into contact with the blue dog's neck, leaving a deep gash. Then Tasha kicked the statue. Again, she kicked it in a sensitive area. "That's seriously messed up," Isaac said. The statue fell to the ground and broke into a million pieces. Well, actually it broke into 999, 999 pieces, but you get the point.

The blue dog was still fighting, but was noticeably getting weaker. Yeah, the dog that had it's snout broken, a hole kicked into it's stomach, and a gash in it's throat was still standing. "Those statue dogs are tough," Bratfur said. Then he snuck away.

Soon, a statue with the head of a kangaroo came, followed by a zebra-headed statue. Tasha was beating the blue dog to a pulp, when the kangaroo-headed statue whacked her with the side of its axe. She crashed to the ground, and the statue raised its axe, when the zebra-headed statue sliced the other statue's head off. Then he morphed back into Bratfur.

The green dog, who had stayed out of most of the fight, decided it was time to act and charged towards the wounded Tasha. Before it could reach her, Dark tried a whacky, unbelievable move. He ran behind the dog, jumped into the air, and spun around right towards the dog's rear end. The dog's eyes widened as it felt something come into contact and go through it's bottom. "Hm, I wonder what I could do in here?" Dark said from inside the dog. Then he started punching holes in through the dog, destroying it from the inside.

He burst out of the dog's back sand landed epically onto the ground as the dog exploded. "That was even more messed up," Isaac said. "Yo, what in the world was that?" Bratfur asked. "I don't know, I felt like doing something awesome," Dark replied.

The red dog staggered to it's feet. "It's time we sent those dogs to the pound," Isaac growled. "CHARGE!"

All of the kids charged. Ralph elbowed the red dog in the cheek, leaving a hole through the mouth. He kneed it in the throat and threw it to the ground. A pigeon-faced statue came with a crossbow, but Bratfur jumped on it, grabbed the crossbow, and shot one, perfect shot at the blue dog. The dog was sent flying, and crashed into the wall with the arrow in its chest. Then Bratfur turned the arrow and shot it right through the statue's head, completely blowing it off the body. He saw the axe of the kangaroo-headed statue and grabbed it before running straight to the red dog.

The red dog barely had time to react when it saw the axe flying straight to its face, and lodged into the snout. Bratfur grabbed the axe, stomped on the dog's back, and pulled the axe. The axe was lodged deeply in the dog's snout, and Bratfur pulling the axe ripped the dog's head off.

Isaac took the crossbow and walked over towards the blue dog. The dog gave him the puppy eyes, but Isaac wasn't buying it and pointed the crossbow at the dog. The dog yelped as Isaac blew a hole into its stomach, and then shot again and blew up its head. Then he threw the crossbow to the ground.

"We must continue," he told the others. "But we need Benjamin," Carmen said. "She's right," Pandora agreed. "We can't do this without him."

"But how do we find him?" Tasha asked. "We need something," Pandora said. She stopped. She had an idea. She grabbed a chunk of stone from the destroyed blue dog. She cast it out the window, whispering "Find Benjamin."

It floated through the night. "I hope it reaches him soon," Pandora said. "Why?" Tasha asked. Pandora turned around. "Because of THAT!"

A growl filled the ears of the children, and they turned around and saw, in front of them, a 12 foot tall and 18 foot long giant red scorpion! "Are you kidding with all this?" Isaac shouted. "First witches, then living statues that feel pain, and now a giant scorpion? Who thought this all up?"

. . .

I had just gotten out of the school. Victor and Farley were still inside. Suddenly, I fell to the ground, grabbing my head. I looked up. I saw a huge face staring at me. Believe it or not, that face belonged to my father.

"Benjamin, do not follow them," he instructed. "Do not follow those who you call your friends." Suddenly Victor and Farley ran over to me. The face disappeared. "That was weird," I said. Then, all of a sudden, the floating rock came to me. "What is that?" Farley asked. "I don't know?" I said. "But it seems to want to follow us."

Instinctively, we followed it. We had no idea what was happening to our friends, so we didn't hurry. If we had known what was happening, we would have grabbed our tails and run so fast a cheetah with running shoes would have been a mile behind.

. . .

The scorpion snapped it's claws at Dark, but he dodged. Ralph ran behind the scorpion and pounded its tail. It barely felt him. Then he grabbed a piece of stone from a broken statue and threw it, hitting the scorpion. Big mistake. The scorpion spun around, whacking Ralph with it's claw, sending him flying into a pillar. He shook his head, stunned, and saw the scorpion bounding towards him.

Rebecca then did the first thing that came to mind: she bit the scorpion's leg. It turned around. It pulled its stinger back and brought it down, and it missed Rebecca by an itch. Ralph got up and tried to walk away, but tripped and fell. The scorpion turned around and hissed.

"AAAGGGHHH!" He screamed as the scorpion stomped towards him. Then Dark scratched it with his claws. The scorpion turned around, only to get punched in the face by Dark. "Come on!" He challenged. "I'll kill you with my bare claws." The scorpion knocked him down with it's claws, grabbed him, and threw him into a pillar.

Bob then grabbed an axe and a sword. He sliced the bottom of a pillar with the sword, and chopped off the upper half by throwing the axe at it, causing the pillar to tumble between the scorpion and the kids. "Do you think that stopped it?" Ralph asked. The scorpion snapped the pillar in two with its claws, getting through.

"Well, does that answer your question?" Dark asked. The scorpion went after Beaver because he was closest, and snapped at him and tried to sting him a few times. Then it grabbed him with its claws, raising him off the ground. It raised its stinger high. Beaver grabbed a shield in the time he had. The stinger was brought down. Beaver raised the shield to cover him. The stinger stabbed into the shield and broke through instantly, touching Beaver's chest. However, the shield had slowed down the stinger and weakened it, and all the stinger did was tap Beaver, not hard enough to inject poison into him.

However, everyone else, including the scorpion, thought he had been stung. "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Punk Gremlin shouted. The scorpion threw Beaver away and turned its attention to the others. They grabbed spears and swords in an attempt to defend themselves. The poked at the scorpion and swung their weapons, but the scorpion snapped its claws at them. "Get back!" Ralph shouted as the scorpion came forward, still snapping at them.

Then they heard footsteps behind them. They turned around. Two statues stood before them. One had the face of a black widow spider, and the other a praying mantis. Their mandibles parted. All hope seemed lost.

"Duh-duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh-duh!" someone shouted as if singing their own theme music. They spun around. I, Victor, and Farley jumped through the window and into the castle. I kicked off the head of the mantis statue. It flew out the window. I grabbed a sword off the ground in mid-air and sliced the head off the other statue. I did all this in mid-air.

I landed on the ground and grabbed a spear. Facing the scorpion, I threw the spear. It landed two inches above the eyes. "NNNAAUUUURRRGGHHH!" It screeched, throwing it's body up and exposing it's vulnerable stomach. I grabbed the stone head of the spider and threw it. It hit the scorpion's chest. Then I grabbed another spear and threw that one, and it got stuck in the scorpion's stomach.

The scorpion pulled out both spears and exhaustingly crashed to the ground. It wasn't dead, it was unconscious. Everyone stood their, their brains fried. Bratfur's jaw hit the ground. Finally, Punk Gremlin spoke. "That's it?" he asked. "We were working our tails off to defeat the statues and that scorpion, and then you jump through the window and beat them all up in like 6 seconds? What, were you trained by Bruce Lee?"

"Not really," Rebecca said. "He is a vampire with fast reflexes."

"Actually, I kind off just did that from a fast reaction of seeing you in trouble and clearly couldn't defend yourself," I answered. Everyone sneered at the comment.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" a voice shouted. We spun around. An old man that wore a light blue robe and had had a gray beard stood in front of us. Oh, he also had a pointy hat. "That was my best scorpion guard," he said. "Also, you decimated by castle and destroyed my guards."

Dark spoke first. "It doesn't matter though," he said. "You have weak forces. You seriously need to get better guards. Who are you, anyway?"

"Me," The man said. "I am the Grand High Wizard." Everyone stood as still as the statues lying around them. "You're who?" I asked.

"The Grand High Wizard," the man repeated. Punk Gremlin fainted. "We need to talk, obviously," The Grand High Wizard said.

. . .

William had returned home. You wouldn't believe the joy of his parents. There was hugging, kissing, all that stuff. Then they had a great feast and a celebration. William forgot to tell his parents what happened, and they were too happy to care. Everything was happy for them. Then…

"AAAAAWOOOOOOOOOOHHH!" Something howled. "What was that?" Henry asked. "It sounded like something howling," Vera replied. "William, you stay here while we investigate."

They scampered out of the house. Searching around, they kept hearing howling and ran into the forest and up a hill. There, they met, to their surprise, all the other werewolves.

"What are you doing here?" Vera asked. "We heard howling and followed," another werewolf said. "I don't know what or who caused it though."

"Hey, I'm floating," Henry said. "Me too!" Vera shouted, alarmed. In fact, all the werewolves were floating. "Who's doing all of this?"

A figure appeared in the darkness. It walked slowly towards them. "Who are you?" Henry asked. "Call me…your new leader," The figure answered, grinning.


	42. The Grand High Wizard

"So let's be clear here," The Grand High Wizard said. "Who are you and where did you come from?" We had only met him for two minutes and already he had cut to the chase.

"Well, I came from New Mouse City," Pandora said. "I also came with my baby brother Slugsy Wugsy." The Grand High Wizard was confused. "Where is he?"

"At the Vampyrs cave," Pandora answered. "Altair, Alucard, and Amides are away." The Grand High Wizard obviously thought she left him alone, and Pandora knew it. "Oh, Jessica and Rudolph are watching him. They brought him to their house."

"You mean those two young children?" The Grand High Wizard asked. Pandora nodded. "They aren't the kindest young kids you know."

"I've met them, I know, but surely they wouldn't leave my baby brother alone in that house," Pandora said. She had no idea how wrong she was.

. . .

"I seriously feel like leaving," Jessica said. "But Pandora said to watch over the baby," Rudolph replied. "Rudy," Jessica said. "Yes?' Rudolph replied. "Shut up, will you."

Rudolph frowned. "Your clown doll can keep him company." They both turned to the clown doll sitting in the corner. The clown doll had a round head with wild red hair. It also had red eyebrows. It wore blue striped pants and shirt, with 10 centimeter long arms and legs. Its face was pale and it had blue eyes. It also had a pointy blue hat.

"I never liked that clown," Rudolph said. "Our parents gave it to me against my will. I never really liked clowns at all." Jessica tapped her foot on the ground. "It is a doll!" She suddenly screamed. "An unmoving, dumb doll! It is not alive and cannot hurt us!"

Slugsy started crying. Rudolph couldn't handle it. "Fine, we'll go," he said. "The clown will keep him company. After all, it's not like it could come to life."

The two of them scampered out to door. As soon as the door closed, the clown's head moved in the direction that the two young kids had disappeared through.

. . .

'Where did you come from?" The Grand High Wizard asked me. "I am also from New Mouse City. My uncle is Geronimo," I replied.

"Who is your family?" The Grand High Wizard asked Pandora. "I have a mom, a brother and a sister, and an aunt," Pandora said. "What is your name?" The Grand High Wizard asked. "Pandora Woz," Pandora replied.

The Grand High Wizard's eyes widened. "Your name is what?" He asked. "Pandora Woz," Pandora replied. He fainted.

. . .

A Goblin walked through the hallway. He was the Goblin Commander. Well, that's what he called himself. Snotnose had seemed to be the Grand High Witch's personal assistant up until now. He was the Grand High Witch's true assistant, and he felt that made him the leader of the goblins. He was wrong. None of the goblins were truly his servants, and they actually pushed him around a little. But the Goblin Commander, which he called himself, was so dumb he didn't realize.

He was looking for Snotnose. Snotnose was standing in a corner, sulking. Why? Because he was so upset at the Goblin Commander's stupidity. Why did he think that just because he was the Grand High Witch's personal assistant that it made him leader of the goblins. So he was furious when he saw the Goblin Commander approach him.

"Why hello Thomas," Snotnose said, pretending to be friendly. "Remember, my name is the Goblin Commander, and I am your leader," The Goblin Commander, or Thomas as he should be called, corrected. Hearing the other goblin say he was his leader infuriated Snotnose. "What do you want?" He asked. "The Grand High Witch has been found out," The Goblin Commander said. "She wants you, and another lower goblin named Charlie, to dispose of those who found out."

"Charlie?" Snotnose asked. "Yes him," The Goblin Commander said. "He likes to call himself Megatron, but really he should be called Starscream." The Goblin Commander let out an evil laugh. "I mean, really, why does everyone call themselves silly names to make themselves seem powerful when they really aren't?" The Goblin Commander asked. "You don't say," Snotnose sneered.

"Now, obey your master and go with Charlie like the lesser goblin you are," The Goblin Commander said. This infuriated Snotnose to the peak of rage. He was tired of hearing the Goblin Commander taunt them and boast about his status. He did something that one would not expect, but you couldn't blame him.

Snotnose delivered a right hook to the Goblin Commander's head and knocked him to the ground with an upper cut. The Goblin Commander crashed into the wall. Snotnose grabbed the Goblin Commander's ear and told him in a menacing voice, "You will realize that I work _with _you, not _for _you. And if you want to keep your head, you will know the difference." He let go of the Goblin Commander's ear and stomped away. The Goblin Commander meekly crawled away back into a room to sulk.


	43. Revenge

After about a minute or two, the Wizard wouldn't wake up so we took out a shoe. We took a stick and impaled the remains of a statue with it and then stabbed the shoe with the other end, making a hammer. We bonked the Wizard on the head with it. He woke up with a start and looked around, and his eyes landed on Pandora. "You," He said. "What?" Pandora asked. "Did this have something to do with being a Woz or something?" There was a moment of silence. "Pandora, I am afraid to say the Grand High Witch is, well, related to you."

"What?" Pandora asked. "I'll repeat that." The Grand High Wizard said. "The Grand High Witch is your aunt." There was another moment of silence. "How do you know?" I asked. "Everyone knows," The Grand High Wizard said. "And no one likes the Woz family." Everyone turned to Pandora. "Why does everyone hate my family?" She asked. "As they say, it runs in the family," The Grand High Wizard said.

We were dismissed from the castle. We all felt empty. Almost everyone. Tasha said, "So your family is the reason everyone hates you. That makes sense, no one ever seemed to like you anyway." I turned to her. "Stop that right now," I said. "It isn't her fault." Pandora was leaving us, going in a strange direction. "Where are you going?" I asked. "I'm going to kill myself." That took me back. "You're joking, right?" I nervously asked. "No," She said. "I'm really going to do it."

"Please stop," I said. "You don't have to." She didn't stop walking. She just said in a different tone, "Stop following me. I have no reason to live. My family is evil, and this is going on because my aunt wants to use me to feed her power. If I do end myself, she won't be able to claim power." I really didn't no what to do. The others did nothing. It seemed they agreed. I tried one more time and said, "There has to be another way."

"THERE IS NO OTHER WAY, SO SHUT UP AND GET OUT OF MY MEANINGLESS LIFE!" Pandora shouted at me. I was taken back. She really was going to do it. There was no stopping her. I wanted to stop her but I just couldn't. My mind went black. It seemed like hours but I couldn't recall the time. When I regained my sight and mind, I found I was all alone in the forest. The others had left. They appeared to be following Pandora. I didn't know what to do. I felt just as meaningless as Pandora did. It was about to get worse.

For suddenly a white figure appeared and took the appearance of my father. "Don't follow them," He said. "You're better off without them." I thought it was my mind. I closed my eyes and opened them. But the ghost was still there. "Really, don't help them." He told me. "But why are you doing this?" I asked. The ghost said, "Think about it. What chances are you of winning. Last time you simply defeated a little mouse your age. You really think you can go up against a powerful witch, her goblin army, and these giant monsters."

"Monsters?" I asked. "You find that out now?" The ghost asked. "I thought you already knew. She has about a dozen monsters to her command. Powerful ones, and she will kill everyone and you cannot stop her." My father was saying these things to me. Trying to discourage me and make me feel as if I should just kill myself with Pandora. This wasn't my father. "You're not my father!" I cried.

"But I am." A different voice said. I turned around. A different ghost had appeared looking identical to the first. That ghost had another one with him. I recognized that other ghost. It was that mouse who had died in the accident on the bridge. Both ghosts said, "You can do it. You can defeat the witches." I didn't feel encouraged, but instead confused. I wanted to believe the second ghost, but I kept asking why he showed up now. That, and it was my father. Anyone would be shocked to see the ghost of their family come and see them.

I was interrupted by the first ghost. "No, don't listen to them. They are lying." The three ghosts all started to fight. It was a shock. I thought ghosts couldn't get hurt, but they were just fighting each other and were showing signs of being injured. Finally, the first ghost was overpowered and it just disappeared. It wasn't actually a ghost at all. Just magic. Someone had used magic to try and destroy my spirit and break my sanity.

The ghosts turned to me. "You can defeat the witches. She has been collecting the powers of different monsters and mutating them to create these creatures. They are abominations. They will kill everyone. That is her goal. Kill everyone. That is why she must be stopped."

"But why kill everyone?" I asked. "She feels that life has no meaning. That power has no meaning. She killed me and this poor man who was one of the Vampyrs." Now my mind was breaking. The Grand High Witch destroyed my life and killed my father because she felt that life was meaningless. I felt a reason to live now. I wanted revenge. Sweet revenge. The ghosts disappeared. I didn't need them anymore now. I had the power to face my enemies. I needed this power and energy or else everyone is doomed to oblivion. I couldn't let this happen. I had to do something. And I knew just what to do.


End file.
